Darth Aloha

Sanity Check Before I glue snaps to the side of my ab and kidney I want to make sure that I'm not entirely crazy. The edge where my ab and kidney meet are not the same length. See image below: I'm assuming that I should line up the top edge (it sorta is on the top photo) and leave the bottom to be covered by the belt? If I don't line up the top it will look like Soldermaster's RT-MOD armor. I'm trying to get as many snaps glued right now before I hop a plane for a week for work. Anyone trooping in Halifax Canada this week? Aloha, -Eric

Looking good! In the home stretch now for sure. Aloha, -Eric

Does anyone have an unmodified hasbro and a set of calipers to measure A and B? If so I'll whip up a scale template to tape to a hasbro to mark pilot holes. Aloha, -Eric

Cruising Along The arms are all strapped up and ready to go. I think the bicep elastic will just about barely go across the bottom of the scoop in the bicep underarm. I wish it were lower but that's life when you have monkey arms. I'm also gluing as many snap plates as I can at once to the torso to start the fitting process. My iComm arrived yesterday and it instantly started driving my wife crazy.... bonus. The dog doesn't like it much either. It's really a sweet product. I don't know how many times I said "the deathstar plans are not in the main computer" last night. Too many times. The imperial march is all loaded onto my ipod and ready to go. Aloha, -Eric

I'm not even done with my build and the idea that someone else would even pack up my armor gives me the willies

I have what amounts to an MRCE... the ESB eFX. I love having it on my shelf next to all my other cheezy helmets. As a stand alone it is still iconic... but I wouldn't troop with it. I also have an RT-MOD bucket.... another idealized helmet (I'm wearing it as I type this playing with my new iComm). I yearn for bumps and warped accuracy. To each his own. I guess the question is... what's your goal? Do you want a costume for halloween or do you want to look as screen accurate as possible? If you can pick up an MRCE cheaply and you need a helmet quickly... go for it. If you have time and interest then buy a kit and build your own... or have someone build it for you... check out this thread from Mike of Trooperbay. You could get an assembled great looking helmet for relatively cheap without the angst and retail regret of the MRCE. Aloha, -Eric

Check out: HOWTO: Modding the MR CE Use the search Luke. Search your FISD, you know it to be true. Aloha, -Eric

Got pics? -Eric

Thanks man. The bit about adjusting by making the outer elastic different length from the inner one is not something I would have thought of. Good tip. It's been tough to get a sense of gaps in the screen captures especially since they're all so different. I was originally wondering how others adjusted their armor.... but I guess I hadn't thought that I would just get it on my body and get the blue tape out and fit the elastic as needed. Duh. Aloha, -Eric

I was wondering if there was an increased usage of FISD in the weeks leading up to Halloween. I noticed that we're not using google analytics but I was wondering if there was a graph available by the hosting provider that shows an upward trend in page views, visits, or bandwidth usage... or of ip.board can break down the number of new registrations by some time period. I thought it would be sorta fun and utterly pointless. Aloha, -Eric

Question Du Jour I've been gluing snap plates to arm pieces tonight... nothing thrilling to photograph... just a quick question i couldn't answer with a search. How much of a gap should I leave between back/kidney/butt and ab/cod? I'm just fitting and cleaning up edges on all these parts and I'm thinking ahead a couple days when I start sizing elastic. Aloha and thanks, -Eric

I got a "look" from the guys at work when I grabbed one of our soldering irons to make holes. We have a distinct lack of extra tips for it Next time I'll grab a crappy one from Radio Shlock. Aloha, -Eric

E-11 Hole Spacing Here's what I think I did to get the hole spacing for my has-brah mod. I'm sorry to say that I don't have my blaster with me today to take actual measurements but here are some tools to help you figure it out. The top row are the existing holes and the bottom orange row are the holes you're going to drill. It will be handy to have a set of calipers on hand to make these measurements. First measure Distance A and draw a line between the edges of both holes. Measure Distance B. This will be the size of your drill bit. Add Distance A and Distance B to get Distance D. Measure and mark the halfway point of Distance A. Draw a line from the midpoint of Distance A down past where the first hole will be drilled. Do the same on the last hole. Measure down this line to the distance of the center of the first hole and make a mark. Do the same on the last hole. Connect the two marks with a line. This is the center line of your new set of holes. Measure every Distance D from the first mark on the center line to the last. Drill pilot holes at every mark. To figure out Distance C I downloaded an E-11 barrel template from somewhere, printed it out and measured it with a ruler (making sure that it was printed to scale) The one below measures 5/8" of an inch or 15.87500 mm between the centers of each hole. If someone wants to take a caliper to the holes of their Hasbro today, I would be happy to draw the whole hole thing out with measurements. Hope this helps. Aloha, -Eric

Mine took a month or more... I sent a reminder email after a while... but they're not great with responding. Don't expect to them to get back to you often or with many words... but they'll get you your neckseal for sure -Eric

I think you should forgo the thighs and just wear blue tights and shins... with the red codpiece and yellow belt you'd really seem like superman. Either way the blue undersuit is a must. I agree the helmet would need something. Maybe the superman S on the front or top of the helmet? Your cape would need to be huge and flowing to get the full effect. In fact any costume with a cape is awesome.... stormtroopers need capes. Wolverine seems like a fun idea. The yellow outfit of course. Magneto would be cool to paint if I had skills. Or even the blue and yellow Xmen uniforms. You could get red lenses and do Cyclops. Marv is onto something with Dr. Doom because you wouldn't actually need torso parts with his cloak thing. Just silver arms, legs and a bucket (boy do I like that idea) If I could find a TX that fit me I would consider an old school venom. I really like this Doom idea of Marv's tho. Aloha, -Eric

Maybe I'd remember everything you wrote if you weren't so freaking helpful all the time Aloha, -Eric

Snap Factory I was in the shower this morning thinking about how best to put a hole in the thick nylon webbing for snaps. I though "how can I punch a hole through the webbing?" and it struck me... duh... a punch. This morning I practiced some workforce deviance and made a few more webbing snap plate thingies. I used two of my favorite tools. My craftsman handicut and the crack torch. Both made quick work of the webbing: I tried a few different punches we had laying around. Oddly, the square one seems to do best. I pretty much over using the tandy snaps. If I had a snap press or a better setting tool I think I would continue to use them. On one hand they are nice because the larger stem of the snap comes through the fabric proudly: On the other hand the tandy snaps fit neither in the dritz vario pliers or the snap setting tool. The base of the snap is just different enough. When I try to use my setting tool the base gets all warped because it doesn't sit well in the indentation. You can sorta see that they don't sit well in the pliers either: For the tandys I did use, I set them with the pliers and then gave them a couple whacks to ensure the stems were smooshed enough. I'm bringing these spring clamps home to glue snap plates on tonight: With better tools this process ended up being quick and easy. I would consider making a run of these and selling them if there was a demand. Aloha, -Eric

Ok... that photo is bad a$$! With the two rifles we're talking John Woo TK action hero kine stuff. Armor is looking great. Your hard work totally paid off. Aloha, -Eric

I have a solution to your bucket problem... Zo... tell me about your father... (get it... head shrinker.... ba dump ding) Aloha, -Eric

Bicep Gluing Nothing spectacular about these photos. Your basic half glued bicep. The only thing to note was that I ended up busting out some bar clamps to help out the magnets. I doubled up on the magnets too. One on each side just wasn't enough. Yes one cracked already. It jumped 2-3 ft across the room into the pile of 4 magnets in my hand. Forearm Velcro Velcro applied to the underside of each forearm. Nylon Webbing Snap Plates Kevster's jedi mind trick worked. I've decided to use nylon webbing instead of plastic snap plates. The only drawback I see is that it is going to be one witch mother of a mess in there. I cannot imagine gluing them in cleanly. It turns out that the 1" nylon webbing I swiped from work is much thicker than most. I busted out the two that came with my thigh garter from mightytank and compared. It takes forever to make a hole in the webbing with the exacto and much of the white inner liner comes out in the process. I may bring a cheap soldering iron home from work to poke holes in the webbing tomorrow. Mightytank on the right... mines on the left. Snap Lament The ease in which the dritz snaps are installed with the vario pliers makes me wish I had more. The tandy ones are fine but the lack of taking them down to my workbench in the garage and pounding on them with the snap set thingy makes me want to use more of the dritz. The tandy's snap base pin thing is just plain taller than the dritz and requires more pressure from the pliers. I guess I will use a combination of them for this build. I think I will use the pliers for the tandys and just whack them after the fact. I don't have any questions tonight mostly because Kevster is quick with the PM reply. Tomorrow will be bicep gluing. Once the biceps are done I will likely focus on getting the snap plates installed in the upper body. The legs can wait. Noob Tip: Buy plastic squeeze clamps. I could not find mine in the garage. I bought some metal spring clamps and the magnets are even more annoying because of them. My clamps snagged each magnet at least twice. Harbor Friend's 1" spring clamp for $0.47 is your friend. Mahalo nui, -Eric

Thanks all! Before this thread turns into a four page discourse on the merits and properties of various rare earth magnets on the market.... let me say I'm stoked for the Lee Valley suggestion. As I mentioned on the first post here I bought my 0.75"x0.125" magnets on Amazon, but the 6 for $10.39 item is out of stock. But 5 for $6.40 (if you buy 3 or more) from Lee Valley is pretty darn good. And Kaptinkaos... imagine if I did find magnets for sale somewhere on island... it would probably be cheaper for me to fly somewhere and mine my own neodymium. More on nylon webbing snap plates... my snap lament.... taming magnets.... forearm velcro... and gluing biceps in a bit. Aloha, -Eric

Ahhhh indeed.... good catch. I stared at that image for some time and didn't catch that.... I am embarrassed for anyone to know just how much of my job involves working with electronics Aloha, -Eric

Forearm Gluing It would be fun to get a collage together of all the photos on FISD of forearms being glued. I bet there are too many to count linked in build threads all over this forum. Nothing exciting here. I only glued one side. The underside will get velcro to fit my meathooks. Bicep Trimming This is as much as I took off my biceps. It is exactly the width of the overlap which gave me a nice line to dig the exacto into. The first one I did I just scored and tried to snap. It was more like score and bend and bend and tear. A foam sanding block and some 220 paper took care of the ragged unseen edge nicely. The second one I was cleaner. I let the exacto knife cut through the ABS. RT-MOD Belt Rob told me he couldn't sew the belt he sent me. I'm glad he didn't because it is made of pleather. Here's a photo of it in all of its horribleness. Questions Du Jour What do you recommend for spreading E-6000? I have these acid brushes I use for wood blue. It seems to do an ok job but does not spread very evenly. Popsicle sticks spread nicely but make the glue hard to control. I read somewhere that you should put E-6000 on both sides of the joint and maybe let it dry a little. The glue seemed to cure a little bit as I was spreading. Should I let it sit for longer? Noob TIP: If you are reading this and you haven not started your build, I suggest buying more rare earth magnets than you think you need. I have 24 making 12 glue points. I wish I had at least twice as many. Bicep gluing tomorrow and I may try to make some snap plates using inch nylon webbing instead of a for-sale sign. Aloha! -Eric

Yipes. Well either the AM biceps are much bigger (and I think they are) than RT-MOD or my biceps are HUGE! I only trimmed a little bit off. I suppose I'll be able to pry the pieces together and re-trim if need be. Excellent advice... thanks KK. That's exactly what I needed to know for the stuff I did today. I was having a helluva time finding how to fit biceps. Bicep is a very common word and I probably read every post with the word "bicep" in it. More about forearms and biceps trimming in the next post. Thanks guys, Aloha, -Eric