Darth Aloha

F'n yay! Thanks man.

Ugh. I just tried using split rivets to attach my thigh battery with not as much success. I didn't think to put a washer in like troopermaster did and the hole I was so careful to make as small as possible got somewhat mangled and elongated I bent mine back with a screwdriver and then took a tack hammer and bent them back more than the screwdriver wrangling could. I'm sure it would be easier if I were doing this some place other than confined space the inside a thigh. Also the RT thigh pack needs to be man handled into place even after heating. I ended up fighting the sproingy plastic on top of trying to bend the pins back. I will no doubt have to redo it at some point in the very near future.... but it was kinda fun to try it out. However.... I'll be using painted brass paperclips on my left side... not split rivets. Aloha, -Eric

I've typed about 5 different comments in here but none are family friendly... yet crack'n me up. So... corsets and lace... you're a real TK fashion trend setter. I'm hoping whatever lingerie based armor solution you come up with catches on with girltroopers everywhere. Aloha, -Eric

I regret using them to attach my thigh battery. They're really hard to bend. I ended up mangling the hole they're put through when you get them bent back far enough. So...yeah.. don't use split rivets unless you have some special tool or method to bend the prongs. The RT thigh battery is hard enough to get on without battling the split rivets I have a few other complaints about the RT thigh pack... but I'm too psyched to get in my full armor this morning to whine about it. Thanks man! (WetOkole my GML btw... so that's a good sign) Speaking of okoles... I need to get mine in gear and finish the last fiddly things on my armor. Aloha, -Eric

Painting Split Rivets Palm trees, dumpster, harbor, and spray painted split rivets stuck in packing foam at work. Not exactly the look I was going for.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue For the moment I think I am done with the majority of my E-6000 application. Until I decide if I am going to trim my thighs.... the rest of this build should be mostly velcro, split rivets, and pop rivets. Last night's gluing.... My beeotch of a sniper knee plate. There was a moment when I wondered if it was a knee plate from another set of armor. I also mangled the poop out of the inside trying to trim it before I understood how it was supposed to lie. The other thigh: Drop boxes: I did not glue the shoulder bridges with the recommended 5 ridges on the chet. My back and chest are too far apart or else the back end of the shoulder bridge would barely be touching the back plate. I went with 3 small ridges plus the big one. I checked on it this morning and I think one of them moved last night from the weight of the clamps. Hopefully it won't look weird or cut into my neck. In my rush I forgot to scuff up the chest plate before gluing which is a little bit of a bummer because there isn't much glue surface area. If I was not rushing I would have glued the Kevster approved small bit of nylon webbing to the shoulder bridge first to make more glueable surface, and then glued the webbing to the chestplate. I have the heat gun from work all packed up to bring home. Tonight the belt goes together, thigh battery attached, my icomm gets installed, and then a final fitting (minus the sniper knee which I will leave clamped to dry until tomorrow) before I head to the farmer's market Saturday in costume. If I get to it, I'll also add the side rivets but I doubt I'll make it that far. Aloha, -Eric

I really wanted to use the word "crotch" in a topic title.... but I refrained. Should the split rivet/brad in the cod crotch be painted white for centurion? Aloha, -Eric

Nerd alert! -Eric

Thx Gazman. I've got an assortment of pop rivets here for securing the holster to the belt that would fit through all the layers.... I just couldnt decide which to use. That's exactly what I needed to know. Muchos mahalos,, -Eric

First post edited.... duh... no rivets on the thigh battery for centurion. The thigh tutorial is just out of date. More searching makes me think I'll use 3/16 rivets for the holster Aloha, -Eric

All, I've been searching for a definitive answer on pop rivet sizes for the last 45 min to an hour (its e-600 procrastination.) I'm hoping to get a more definitive answer on how big a pop rivet to use for the following items: Thigh battery - I'm assuming 1/8" according to the tutorial but I've seen other sizes in various threads. Holster (I decided not to use my chicago screws) - 3/16? 5/32? 1/8? Aloha and thanks, -Eric

Ah velcro... good tip. That should stop the thing from sliding around back there. I think if I added shims to the sides, butt wouldn't jut out so much. Or, god forbid, stopped drinking beer for a few months. I measured my shins and thighs for RT before I ordered the kit. His legs are about the same size so I figure once I get the thigh ammo and that stupid knee plate on it should look even better. And yeah the left one is the slightly smaller one. The smaller one feels better I think. I'ts pretty tough to tell walking around when everything is held together with tape. I might close the thighs with velcro for the time being before I decide to trim anything. Thanks for your help. Aloha, -Eric

If you're buying that Henderson from house of scuba you can find-----------

I have a handful of 1/4" chicago screws I may attach my holster with. Removable but won't come unsnapped. Do a quick search for chicago screws on FISD and you'll find more info and suppliers. Aloha, -Eric

Hey Hey, Thigh Thigh I finally got the front of a thigh glued tonight. Really in the home stretch now. Belt stuff, thigh ammo, knee plate, thighs... then I'm all pau. But before gluing I spent some time wearing my legs for the first time. I have mightytank's garters to help but they're taped to the sides of my thighs for ease of adjustment. One thigh is taped up smaller than the other. I'm contemplating trimming my thighs. Can you even tell which looks trimmed? Back in Black Does it look like there's a crapload of black showing between my belt and thigh? Even if I pull the thigh up as I can there's still lots of black. TK Got back In all of my photos so far I go out of my way to get the belt around so that the top of my butt plate is covered by the belt. The reality is that as soon as I walk anywhere the belt slides up and then my butt plate juts out... following the natural contours of my posterior. The majority of the stunts I've seen in the screen caps have their belts up around their kidneys. Does anyone know of a good way to prevent this? The elastic could be maybe 1/4" shorter but that won't make much of a difference. I've tried pulling up the abs but that didn't help much either. Thanks Joe. Whew! Thanks Brian. It took a long long time to get to that point. Longer than I expected for sure. Aloha all, -Eric

Hmmmm 6'4" in a TM.... time for me to lose a few pounds... because that suit looks even better on you now I know you're also a tall dude. Aloha, -Eric

How the hell did I miss your EIB pass... nicely done sir. Congrats your HWT is inspirational Aloha, -Eric

To paraphrase Indiana Jones: "Snaps... why did it have to be snaps?!" My solution to everything is McMaster Carr. I wish I had thought about this earlier this year but they sell 1 or 10 for $5.30. Just be careful about shipping costs... they almost always use UPS overnight. Or if you live somewhere close to a major mcmaster hub you can always pick them up will call. I have no idea if they're line 24 sized...but the catalog page says they're 9/16 in diameter which sounds about right. McMaster also sell snap tools and other presses too. If I lived in an area with other troopers that didn't require a boat or a plane to visit... I would think about collecting money within the garrison/outpost to buy a press for the group. If someone orders these let me know how they are. Aloha, -Eric

Torso Fitting I have been playing with my shoulder bells and biceps off and on for a couple days. My upper arm and forearms are long. I can't seem to physically get the biceps up high enough. I did trim them a bit but I do not think it would have much of a difference. I really do need slightly longer forearm armor. There no elastic between the ab and chest yet. I have blue tape holding the chest down in position. I have not glued on the shoulder bridges yet either. Given my size I thought it was a good idea to wait rather than count the requisite number of ridges. My rear end sticks out a little farther than a thin english dude. I keep trying to get the belt to go across the butt/kidney seam but like the stunts in ANH the belt wants to go across the kidney. More on that issue later once I get other things aligned. Bells Attached to The Shoulder Straps I first tried attaching the strap at the top of the bells to my shoulder straps. I need to make them tight to get the shoulder bell up over my shoulder. This makes the should strap elastic pull down. It is tough to see because my wife, who took the photos, is shorter than I am... but my shoulder elastic is being pulled down toward my arm. The shoulder bells just do not seem to fit my shoulders. Howzit? Bells Strapped Across The Back I forgot to put my neck seal on for these photos I have a few general questions: Should I shorten up the back/kidney straps a bit? Is the back at the right height on my body? Does the chest look right or is it too low? Do the shoulder bells seem rotated back away from the chest? (I just noticed this now) Any and all comments are welcome.... I have a thick skin so lemme have it. Aloha and thanks, -Eric

For now I'm going to use velcro for the back of the shins. I'm interested in the bra strap solution someday once the velcro wears out. My forearm velcro is already getting a little worn from the fittings The nylon snap plates have worked out well so far. I did have one start to peel off but I haven't looked to see if it was just a crappy glue job. The plate I had to peel off because of the dritz snap that failed took quite a bit of force. If I had to do it over again I would have ditched the extra thick webbing I found laying around at work and gone with the thinner material from ace hardware. So yeah... another shin today... then on to the thighs I really like the looks KW's phase 1 EPII armor. I'm pretty sure it won't fit me. If I do end up going TD I'm guessing I'll have to do mostly out of RT again but maybe take my time and butt join with cover strips. Aloha, -Eric

I'm going to go sit down and read the Rotj crl before I open my big trap again

Of course don't forget elastic and snaps if you're going that route... Rob sends boatloads of velcro with his kits. I didn't know that Rob did ROTJ specific armor... do you need the white edging too? If you're going for EIB or centurion you'll need stuff for your bucket like green lenses, s-shaped neck trim?. You can get all that stuff from Trooperbay. Aloha, -Eric (edited to remove ROTJ mistakes)

Never Enough Magnets Just when you think you have enough magnets... you end up doubling them up. I glue my shins like I put on my pants... one leg at a time. What amazing me is how E-6000 can still ooze out after vigorous wiping. I went back 20 minutes later and there was still more oozing. I clearly used too much. Once my snap plates from last night finish curing there will be a final fitting from the waist up. It doesn't look like I'll get my legs all done this weekend as planned but there is still lots of other stuff to do. My crappy RT TD tube got a coat of paint today in case there is a mailing snafu coming from Jesse's detonator factory. I spray painted some 8mm brass paper fasteners too. The belt, ill fitting sniper plate, and knee battery pack are the only major thing left after the thighs. Thanks Martin I'm having way too much fun.... and I'm already thinking about my next build. Sandy? Phase 1 clone? Hmmm. Aloha, -Eric

I wish Kidney/butt and ab/cod all arrived as separate parts on my RT-MOD kit. -Eric

LePaul.... take a moment and read some of the links above about snap plates. Again... check out my build where I used E-6000 with nylon webbing snap plates. No need to add another layer under the snap. Just be careful and don't get glue on the bottom of the snap when you're putting the snap plates in. I toyed with the idea of slathering clear nail polish on the underside of the snap but that seemed like overkill. I know you're super stoked. We all are during the build process... but maybe settle down... pop an adult beverage... and take a tour of the FISD forums... especially the getting started and howto section