Jorran

I hope MC is able to fix his molding process, because I don't want you guys to stop producing these kits. Like Sarah indicated before, I'm more than happy with every single bit of what you guys created, with just this one exception. Your communication and service are top notch as well. I'll PM you later this morning when I get free of some meetings here at work.

Well, now that you've pointed this out I've gone back and had a closer look at my helmet. I had left it until last because I was focusing on trimming all the other parts first. I've discovered two problem areas: 1.) The first looks like that exact same ridge line you're talking about. Sorry for the poor lighting in this picture. 2.) The second is what I found when I turned the cap around. The line we're all talking about basically goes all the way around the helmet (seen in the top row of arrows below). But on the bottom half of the helmet is what appears to be a pretty large divot that I don't think is supposed to be there (seen where the bottom row of arrows is pointing).

Ok, I'm going to be following this thread closely. I purchased a T/MC kit as well, and my helmet also has this line. It's very subtle and I didn't notice it at first, and I can only see it if I hold it under the light at a certain angle...but of course, now that I've seen it I cannot UN-see it and it's the first thing I notice when I look at the helmet. Mine was not a discount or b-grade.

Did you use the same velcro/elastic assembly for the connection between the bicep and forearm? (PS - Thanks for all the help and quick replies! )

While waiting for my forearms to cure (I switched to plastic welder for my forearms to securely close that big gap, thanks to suggestions from the Florida Garrison), I moved on to other pieces. I enlisted the help of The Boss to sew elastic loops, then used an ABS tab to secure them to my hand guards. I can now slide these over my Nomex gloves - this leaves me with two pair of gloves depending on the situation (in addition to Karin's fantastic flexible hand guards!). I've also been trimming like a madman the last couple of days. All of the leg pieces, butt and kidney plates, and several other pieces are finished. Then, this afternoon, I pulled the following part out of the box. Despite my 33 years, I giggled like a toddler when I saw this iconic shape. More updates to come tomorrow as my first forearm is finished and I move to the strapping for the arms.

I bought mine here: Applied Magnets. And thanks for all the tips everyone! The times when I've had the most problems with them shattering have been when I've been returning a magnet to the stack - even with the plastic divider they would still break if there was too much impact. The "sliding" suggestions have really helped. I've been putting a second, non-metallic object on top of the stack so that the pull isn't quite as strong, putting the new magnet on top of that, and then pulling that object out and sliding the magnet to the top of the stack. So far I'm having much better results. I haven't resorted to gloves yet, but I am now wearing protective glasses whenever I apply magnets or return them to the stack. One of the ones that shattered fired a piece of shrapnel across my dining room like it was shot out of a cannon. I don't need that in my eye.

I spent most of yesterday getting some trimming done (shins, sniper plate, knee boxes, etc.), and I started adding the strapping to the bells, which has worked out well so far. I have one half of the snap plates finished, and now I just need to get my soldering iron out and get the other halves finished to make sure everything is correct before I start gluing tabs to the armor. My current problem is one that I don't know how to overcome. Take a look at my forearm: That's a mighty big gap to close. I knew it was going to be rough going, but I tried gluing the inner shims first (I had used two clamps in addition to the two pairs of magnets you see here). As usual, I sanded down all the surfaces that were going to take glue, washed away the plastic shavings, then let the glue cure for a couple minutes before securing everything together and letting it sit for 24 hours. Tonight, as soon as I tried to bend the sides together I could see and hear the glue tearing and the seam pulling apart. I'm not sure how to proceed. I could try gluing on the cover strip to add more support, but I fear that won't even be enough to hold this bad boy together with that much stress on the seam. I don't have access to a heat gun, so I'm not sure how to shape the forearms more closed before trying to glue them. Any suggestions?

To assist with my TK build I purchased a set of 20 rare earth magnets (the 3/4" square variety). I've been very impressed with how strong they are, and they've really helped seal the deal while I let the E6000 dry on the various parts. The problem I'm having, however, is that I've only completed a few parts and I've already shattered five of them. At the rate I'm going, they're going to all be destroyed before I get halfway through my build. Have any of you had this problem? Or can someone give me some tips for how to better handle these ticking shrapnel bombs?

Jason, I had a very similar reaction when I got my big brown box a few weeks back. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself. I laid everything out, got a picture with my pet (seems to be a trend!), and then stood back and thought, "What did I just get myself into!?" Slow and steady definitely wins this race. People here are very happy to answer all your questions and it's great to know that everyone on this board wants you to succeed. By the way, I too can vouch for Karin's fantastic hand guards! I also bought a pair of Nomex flight gloves and will be attaching the hand guards that came with my kit to those. Best of luck!!

Terry, I'm thinking of using this same method as I build my bells/bicep connection. What I think I see is a strip of elastic that has a snap tab on one end (glued to the bell) and a strip of black velcro sewn to the other end, which is then pressed onto a patch of white velcro that's been placed on the bicep. Is that right? I was looking at Stuka's Flickr build, and he used snap plates on the bell and bicep with elastic between them. I can see how yours allows for more flexibility/adjustment, but do you find that it's a strong connection?

Slow but steady progress. I did trim down the returns on the forearms and I'm pretty confident in that area now. The inner shims are curing for the forearms at the moment. I'm sanding down the areas to be glued, then letting the E6000 cure for a few minutes before clamping and magneting (<-- new word!) the parts together. So far, so good. Recent Progress The hand guards are ready to go. As Terry pointed out earlier, T/MC does a nice job of drawing trim lines, labeling, and even putting some tips on the pieces themselves in some of the excess plastic. The suggestion here was to use a belt sander to sand down the hand guards. I looked around my workshop (aka, our dining room) and didn't find a belt sander, so I went with the secondary suggestion of a dremel with the sanding wheel. After taking this picture I cleaned up the last bits of trimming. The shoulder bells are trimmed, sanded, and ready for snap tabs and elastic. And finally, the biceps are done with the inner shims and outer strips. The perspective looks otherwise, but the outer strips do line up with the top and bottom of the biceps. Let me know things look, please! Any and all feedback and critiques are very welcome.

I just finished my bicep strips tonight, and I went rounded as well. No particular reason other than I thought it looked better.

It's been a little slow going as I proceed cautiously through these first pieces. I feel like I'll really pick up some momentum if these biceps turn out the way they're supposed to. Speaking of which: I've got my first inner shims gluing now, cut from the trusty "No Parking" sign. I'm using clamps and rare earth magnets to help set the E6000 bond, so we'll see how well this holds together come tomorrow night. I've also now personally experienced the amazing power (and finger-smashing ability) of these crazy magnets. I was shocked at how far apart they start attracting each other, and once they're attached it's a mess to separate them again! In the meantime, I'm trimming down my forearms. I did a quick test fit, and my knuckles scrape a bit going through the wrist opening of the forearm. Does that happen to you guys on your builds as well? My first thought was that I should trim less than I had planned to make the wrist opening a little wider, but my current test fit is set to accommodate the 15mm cover strips.

Thanks again for all the help, Troopers! The furniture polish (Pledge) did the job - it took two applications, but everything is back to normal. They have Goo Gone at our local Home Depot, so the next time I'm there (which will probably be soon as I keep discovering new things I need for my build!) I'm definitely picking up a bottle.

Thanks for all the quick replies, everybody! I'll try the furniture polish idea first, since we have that available. If that doesn't work for whatever reason I'll start moving through the list of other suggestions.

Hey Troopers! I did a test fit of my bicep armor and left the blue painter's tape on too long apparently, because after I removed the tape, a good portion of the adhesive is still on the armor. The area is sticky and when you look at it in the light you can see the imperfection on the surface. The question is, what should I use to clean that off that won't hurt the armor? I tried a little dish washing soap and water, but that had no effect. Thanks in advance, everyone!

It is wider - I haven't trimmed the ridges on any of the parts yet. I just cut to the line, did a test fitting, and was shocked at how much I thought I was going to have to cut. I think my issue is I was reading too much into what some people had said on their builds: that the bicep should still be comfortable when flexed; I was taking that statement and thinking, "Well, I need to trim it down to where it's a little snug when flexed," which, as you can see on me, is a LOT of trimming. Reading what you said about the biceps being OK a little loose definitely puts my mind at ease. I think what I'll do is trim down the ridges on both sides to 8mm each and do another test fit and see how I like it. Thanks for the help, Terry!

Ok, I'm done with the basic trimming of both biceps. I haven't sanded yet or rounded any corners - just cut to the trim lines so far (saving all the cleaning up for when I'm done with my fitting and final cuts). Here they are, taped and on my arm. I made sure they were comfortable with the arm flexed. 1. My first question - I want to make sure I understand the process since I'm doing the butt join/cover strip method. I trim the raised parts so that there's 8mm left on both ends, making room for a 15mm cover strip. Right? 2. I should mark the inner bicep and cut off the area where the outer part overlaps it. Still right? If so, that's where I start to get slightly confused. There's a huge amount I'm going to have to cut that inner part (yeah, I've got skinny arms). Here's a top down view: As you can see, once I trim down that inner part, the raised ends will be completely trimmed away. Where does the cover strip go at that point? Thanks in advance for any help you all can throw my way. I feel like once I get through this first piece, I'll really start making some good progress.

For the holes on the barrel, I used the dremel. I marked them off with a pencil first, and then used a very small bit to get a pilot hole started. Then I gradually worked up in size on the bits until I had the holes the diameter that I wanted. You'll want to remove some of the small plastic parts inside the barrel if you use this method, as they can throw off the dremel. For the LED, I cut a small bit of plastic screen protector (like you might buy to protect the screen on your smart phone or ebook reader) and put it over the LED. Then I closed up the blaster and sprayed everything. At the end of the spraying process I used a pair of tweezers to pull off the screen protector and it worked like a charm.

Thanks for the compliments, Erics 1 and 2. Hawai'i Eric, I didn't use a dremel for hollowing out the scope rail. Instead, I used an x-acto knife and scored all the way around the inner edges repeatedly until I was able to snap the inner plastic out. It took a long time, but I felt like I had more control that way than with the dremel. This process is much easier if the blaster is split into its two halves first. Once it was hollow, I sanded down the rough areas and then used bondo to fill in the seam once the halves were screwed back together. Hope this helps!

Thanks for the advice, Ricky! I trimmed one of the biceps down to the lines over the last two nights. It's rough around the edges, but I'm not going to clean that up until after I fit it and trim it to my size. I think I need some basic lessons in x-acto knife wielding. I would get a nice straight groove cut, I'd be several passes into scoring the piece, then suddenly there goes the blade scooting off 20° from where I was cutting a second before. I've got two cuts along the surface of the bicep that just made me sit in stunned silence for a while. They won't be visible when the whole suit is on, but I'll know they're there...and it makes me wonder what I need to do differently to ensure I don't make the same mistake on more prominent parts. Some of my thoughts are (1.) go slower, (2.) less pressure, and (3.) smaller distances. Suggestions? The other thing I noticed when I set the two pieces together was that it looked like I'm going to need to twist the piece to get it to line up correctly: If you look at the far seam at the top of the image, it gets much wider at the top. Am I going to have to heat these pieces up and twist them, or will it come down to trimming and cover strips?

Terry, did you trim to the pencil markings that they made on the pieces first, and then trim to your specific size second? I tried fitting the bicep parts first, but there's so much excess plastic that I can't get a good starting point. By the way, is there any kit you haven't built!? Also, just a quick shout out to Tray and everyone else involved with T/MC. The communication with him was always clear and fast, and I got my big brown box almost exactly two months to the day that my payment cleared PayPal (someone in the queue in front of me had to drop off, so this might be slightly faster than normal). It's my first kit so I don't have anything to compare to, but I'm extremely happy with the service and the kit from T/MC. Two big thumbs up! :duim:

Thanks Brian! I will definitely be taking my time and looking for loads of help both here and in my local garrison forum. One thing I forgot - can someone edit my first post title and add the [*T/MC] tag? I intended on adding that but got caught up in the picture madness!

The box arrived today. Many of you already know the feeling - I was so close to suddenly coming down with the dreaded TK Virus and leaving work early so I could rush home and finally see it. But I stuck it out, was thoroughly unproductive, and then finally got home to see this: This was my view after cracking open the box: With the T/MC kit, you have the option of having cover strips made at the same time as the rest of the armor. That's the group of pieces you see in the above picture, on top of the rest of the packing material. Everything was pretty securely placed in the box, and all of the pieces were separated by layers of packing material to prevent scratching during transit. One of the first things to come out was the bag o' goodies, which includes parts for the helmet, TD, ab buttons, and more. I banished the dog from the living room and laid the kit out: I then let one of my assistants back into the room for a photo op: Now that all of the fun pictures are taken, another feeling that I'm sure all of you are familiar with has set in: WHERE DO I START!?!?!? AAAAGGGHHHHH!!!! I've set out the biceps to start trimming tomorrow night, as that's the piece I see most often as the easiest starting point. Stay tuned - there will be tons of pictures and even more questions in this thread.

Agreed. I have the V2 Doopy kit as well, and as you can see in the picture below of my pre-painted Hasbro, there's definitely a notch already cut: Another option would be cutting the extra plastic "nub" off the Hasbro itself so you wouldn't need to cut a notch in the resin piece. The nub is helpful for lining things up and holding the piece in place for gluing though, so this is just a suggestion for if you don't want to mess with carving into the resin part.