Solcar23

Well, nearing completion of the suit and need to get cracking on the lid soon! Progress is moving along and thought I'd share on where I'm at. Finished cutting the corners of the belt and final assembly to the canvas belt: Installed snaps to the canvas belt: Glued on the drop boxes: rivet covers in place: Finished belt sans canvas: Then I was on to finally installing the nylon webbing snap plates: Final product ready for the strapping and fitting process: Front chest and ab: Back kidney and butt: Biceps and bells: Thighs: There is also a snap plate on the inside of the forearm to the bicep and velcro in the hand plates to use Pandatroopers idea for the attaching the plates on: So, I really liked Panda's idea for attaching the hand plates so I roughed together the parts and am giving it to my neighbor who is going to sew it for me. Great idea Panda thanks so much for designing these! Top of the right hand: Bottom: I also loved Panda's idea for the thigh garter so I put that together as well and had another different friend sew it together for me. These work great! PROPS TO PANDATROOPER AND MIGHTY TANK FOR THE ORIGINAL DESIGNS FOR THE GARTER AND HAND PLATE HOLDERS!!!! Then it was on to strapping the whole this together: Elastic straps with the Dritz 5/8 snaps: Evening out the rear bottoms and cutting the tops of the shins and bottoms of the thighs to allow greater range of motion in the legs: Tops of shins: Bottoms of thighs: Then glued the shoulder bell elastic: I also installed the shoulder straps but forgot to take pics of the process. Still more work to do but 9 months of research, gathering and assembling later, I see the finish line!!!

Well! I was able to get about 8 hours yesterday on the armor and am closer than ever to finishing! I still need to finish the belt, glue in snap plates and work out the strapping system. It's amazing how much faster everything goes after the hellish limbs are done! Lol! Well here's the progress! Drilled out the holes for the rivets on the ammo belt: Installed: I put them on for a test fitting. Then I moved onto the snaps and rivets on the torso armor. I'm installing the right side male snap here: Then the cod rivet. This one's for show only: inside view: Then I moved on to the drop boxes, first riveted the nylon strap onto the backs. I got these from TK 0812 Kevin. They are meant to fit AP boxes, but by cutting the corners they fit fine: Glueing and clamping them up: Then I moved onto the left side rivets, once again for show, they don't hold anything together. I was going to use the same rivets that Gazmosis gave me but I ran out of the heads so I went to the ones I bought from Trooperbay. They are excellent and I'm glad that I'm actually using them since I had written them off when I saw Gaz's. Lined up with the kidney plate: Then I put in the butt plate snaps, easy peasy!: Then after what seemed like forever fitting them I glued on the shoulder straps: Finally, I started the belt assembly. I began by heat bending it to a curved shape like the thigh ammo belt: Next up! Finishing the belt and installing the snaps and attaching all of the parts to the canvas belt from Trooperbay! Woo Hoo! I can see the finish line in the distance!

Thanks Sooooo much! That clears it up perfectly! Billhag's stuff is the best!

Like I said in the title, I need to cut my belt for my ATA build and I'm not sure how much to cut off on the ends. Is there anywhere on here or someone who knows what I should be measuring from the last boxes on the belt to the edges?

Thanks Steve! Couldn't have done it without you!

Finally finished with the main construction of the limbs: They still need to be fine tuned, cleaned up and the ammo belt attached, but boy am i happy to have these finished! So far the limbs proved to be the toughest part. So many opportunities to mess em up! I'm really not satisfied with the left shin because my finishing strip traveled to the left while being clamped. After all is finished I'll probably revisit this part and reposition the strip and reapply the sniper plate. For now, it stays. legs: arms: I wasn't able to get to the armor one night this week so I prepared about 40 snap plates. I've decided to go with nylon strapping snap plates as they appear that they'll be easier to put into the armor's curves and the ones I've read about seem to be just as stable as the plastic ones. They were a breeze to make with a soldering iron to make the holes and a lighter to melt the edges so they don't fray. I used the Dritz snap tool and 5/8 snaps. I'll put a small piece of duct tape over the metal part before I glue them in so the E6000 doesn't come into contact with the metal. This can cause heat that can melt armor! Attached the ab buttons finally. This was a pain as I couldn't clamp it because its too deep into the armor and I don't have any clamps that'll reach that far. I ended up taping it down but it still wouldn't stay flush so I placed the ab piece on a pillow and put a 12 lb barbell on top of the section which held it in place and flush pretty nicely. Next, I needed to attach the ammo belt onto the bottom of the right thigh to finish it off. I got out my trusty heat gun, some clamps and a couple of tongue depressors and gently and carefully bent each section of the belt until it fit around the bottom edge. Fit really well on the thigh but still needed to get the rear bent a bit more to fit around the corner near the back edge: After bending the final spots: I broke my lexan scissors the other night. Arrrrgh!! Need to get over to the hobby shop to replace I ended up having to use these to cut the pieces: Cut the rounded corners: Taped in place to test it out. Looks good to me! I ran out of steam last night at this point so I'll get the belt installed next. I got these great rivets from Gazmosis at the armor party earlier in the month and need to run to Jo-Ann to get a setting tool for them. Really nice, I'll use these for the side rivets as well. Well, need to run over to Jo-Ann and get back on this! I'm getting so close that I can see the finish line! Still a lot of details to take care of but I'm generally satisfied with the progress. What's left. Belt, drop boxes, over the shoulder chest straps, installing snap plates and the overall strapping system. Nearly there!!!

Ivanhoe, I'd use 5 min epoxy for a solid weld on all parts, plus the whole kit assembles much faster. Also, you'd be surprised at how hefty and dense the Doopy's feels when it's done as opposed to when it's still just parts. After the glue, add-on parts, metal rail and bracket, primer/paint, It really feels like you have a blaster in your hand, not a toy. Mine feels super solid and heavy. I'm a big fan of the Doopy's!

Gazmosis does the same thing to his rear traps, then he installs two fans to pull the hot air out of the lid. He says it works great. Here's his Centurion application thread, they commented that it needed to be really dark but they had no problem with it in the end. http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=18984 I'd love to do it myself on mine but I don't trust myself and my Dremel skills to cut into the lid like that!

Nice work! You're getting a lot done quickly! I'm working on an ATA build too and at the rate I can get on it it's taking me months! Great job Trooper!

Glued the inside reinforcing strips for thighs last night! All that's left is the cover strips for both. Sizing was a breeze and they fit perfectly. I think I got really lucky considering the potential for a mis-sizing or extra large knee openings, etc. Went with 25mm strips on the front like the shin fronts so the front will look consistent and 25mm on the back in contrast to the 30mm strips on the back of the shins. I think the 5mm difference in the back won't be all that noticeable. We'll see when they're done and tested out. Things are moving along nicely so far!

It's in a mirror! Lol!

Finished shins with sniper plate. Still need trimming and adjustment! Yay! Testing them out with the boots: Clamping the reinforcing strips and the thigh halves together:

You can get em on Tooperbay as well!

Ok! It's been a while since I've updated but there has been some progress! I've got the helmet built and the shins just about finished as you will see! My next task is getting the thighs together! Then onto the central body parts and the strapping system! I can practically smell the finish line in the next couple of weeks hopefully! Here we go! Here's the lid. I finally got over to Gazmosis' house and along with getting the lid serviced by an expert I also got to hang with some of the coolest people I've met in a long time! Thanks Steve for the hospitality and the help! After talking to them I'm really pushing the progress so I can get out there with the MWG as soon as possible! Clamping the shins: Glueing on the cover strip: Inside strips: Adding the white velcro closure strips, I had to go with 30mm strips on the back and 24's on the front to make the greaves fit so I cut 15mm strips of velcro and they seem to be working great!: Glueing the final rear cover strip (finished product on the left and you can see where the bottom needs to be adjusted and trimmed a bit): Finished shins. They still need to be cleaned up of the excess E6000 and trimmed and sanded to be comfortable but the look alright to me so far. Any suggestions would be great! I still needed to attach the sniper plate. Also, should I slightly and carefully heat bend the backs with my heat gun to get them to sit more flush at the velcro part? They don't pull apart but it does spread a bit. If your looking at the insides you can see just a few mm of velcro. It's not heinous but could be improved upon. With the TK Boots and east bay under suit pants, obviously no sniper plate yet: Adding the sniper plate before I finished for the night, It looks like my cover strip floated a bit to the right. Grr.....I may not be able to live with that, I'm really noticing it now that I'm looking at the pic: Outer public facing side, this side sat really well along the seams and ridges. I also cut it more vertical as was suggested by Mathias in this post earlier http://www.whitearmo...=&fromsearch=1: Inner more concealed side, I couldn't do much with it. It sits well on the opposite side and is centered so I just went with it. Well, next up........THE THIGHS!!!!!

My god! I nearly had a heart attack this morning! I simply cannot be without FISD in my day! Thank god its all straightened out! I can rest easy!

Looks great Dom!!

That is amazing!!! I have a 6 year old son and would love to get something like that for him! Can you PM me the info?

And...........223!!!! YAY!!!!! I'm really hoping to get a 2323, etc....type of TK #!!

Mine is an anagram of my first name. Carlos/Solcar I use it for just about all of my screen names and the 23 is my most favorite number.

Arms.......complete....

Thanks Man!!!

Ok, here's this evenings progress: Two finished forearms, the straighter right is as small as I could get it to match the curvier left so at this point, I live with it. Both have 15mm cover strips and inside reinforcing strips made of scrap from trimming. Front return edges: Biceps clamped for the night. Just one more day on the left to put it's cover strip on. Legs next!!........

I wish I had more time, more clamps and more expertise! I just can't wait to wear it!!! AND the excitement of finally applying for 501st membership and EIB/Centurian! Hoping for my first troop in August the latest! Maybe ComicCon here in Rosemont if all goes well!

It should still be comfortable with no bagginess. Form fitting.