Nihilius

Progress! Picked up the scissors yesterday and everything went much quicker. Seeing the pile of plastic that I've trimmed really makes me feel like I'm properly destroying something. I got the bulk of the waste cut off. I left everything oversized for an initial test fit as well as mild return edges. I left the back of the shins completely untrimmed because I plan on doing velcro. I haven't really done anything with the chest, back or ab plate since most of the build threads I have in front of me focus on sizing the arms and legs. TK Boots also showed up yesterday and I must admit that they are rather stylish! I can't wait for everything to come together. I think this build is going be fun.

So I spent a little time tracking down a good blower fan for my build and I think I may have found what I'm looking for. The Sunon GB1205PHV2-8AY.GN measures 50mm x 50mm x 15m pulls 0.7W and can blow air across the faceplate and lens. With a regular 9V alkaline battery this should give about 6hrs of continuous use. I'm hoping it will still put out 2.3CFM and maybe even quiet down to 25-30dB but these last numbers are very relative. Can anyone give some feedback on what this would be like once mounted inside the helmet? 30dB may be a whisper in open space but inside an echo chamber it could be a completely different story. Does anyone have any other suggestions? I'm kind of a cheapskate and prefer to build everything myself when I can. Digikey PN 259-1315-ND

Thanks fot the heads up darksideemt. I've heard that you kind of need to twist the helmets to get them on but was hoping that since the padding is only 1/4"-1/2" thick it might work. Either way it will be around when I finish the helmet so I may still give it a try. Another little note, I spent a little more time scoring and breaking last night with an x-acto blade and I just don't have the talent to cut nice even curves. I'm going to head to an RC shop to grab some lexan scissors which will hopefully make trimming the non-straight pieces a little easier.

Hey Sergeant, The drop boxes only came with fronts though I know someone is doing runs of backs. As far as the liner goes, it looks like you can find them as low as $25 +shipping. Mine happens to be for Sparx brand helmets and they come in a variety of sizes. Smalls will have much thicker padding than an X-Large. The helmet kit I got from Supertrooper included two sets of stunt ears, I assume enough people have screwed them up that he throws in spares. I believe these are the only ears that he offers with of his helmets but you might want to shoot him an E-Mail and ask because I really have no idea. The helmet also included the hardware, neck trim, brow trim and the backing for the eyes. Not pictured are the 4 additional sheets of ABS that came with the armor kit for cover strips and snap plates.

Well my ABS ATA kit showed up last week and it looks great. I figured I might as well start a build thread to get some constructive criticism as I go. Now I have a few too many hobbies as it is so there probably won't be daily updates but I'll try to post as I make progess. I'll be uploading more pics than posted in this to photobucket http://photobucket.com/ATABuild Here's the fresh plastics! I was very suprised how much armor fit in such a small box! This shot actually gave me the idea of using an extra motorcycle helmet liner for the build. It fits very well and is super comfortable. I'm hoping it will allow air to flow even though it was designed with top vents in mind. I guess I'll just need to test it out. I'm just starting to do some trimming but I feel I might be doing so in a far too conservative fashion. When doing the initial rough trimming should I go all the way to the "clean" portion of the piece? I started cutting my first piece and left about a 1/4" of rough mold on the plastic but now I think I'm going to need to trim it again before I can even start the fitting process. I'm 5'10" and 145lbs so I think the lengths/heights will be close and most of the trimming will be to fit my lean build. I was able to start a little bit on the cap and faceplate but stopped when I couldn't find my set of mini files. Anyway, I'm super excited to finally get this started! Thanks everyone for being so helpful and putting up the various tutorials for those of us that have never done this before.