boomshakra

Ok, I am confused. I have done overlap on all parts of my armor - and definitely 'did my homework' reading build threads. What did I miss that I am supposed to "know to use cover strip assembly where applicable"? I will be submitting my photos this week for 501st approval and did my build with EIB/Centurion in mind - currently, I think the only Centurion requirement I have not done to my armor is the hand-painted decals (which I have and will apply soon) and the 3rd screw at the base of the helmet. Am I understanding correctly from the comments above that if I want to go for Centurion I will have to completely disassemble my armor and re-build with cover strips? If not completely disassemble, where is it 'applicable'? As noted above, there is nothing in the CRL about requiring armor to be butt-joined/coverstrips. I'm not trying to argue a point or be difficult, I just need clarification - it has taken a lot of work to get my armor ready...and would be disappointing if I have to rebuild.

I could only find 1.5", so that is what I went with. I'm thinking about 'doubling-over' the ends where I attach the snaps - they're starting to tear as I don/remove my armor for test fittings. It also helps give more material for the snap to settle on when hammering it down.

Test fitting round one: Thighs not even - still a little big and I just stuffed some padding down in them - need to strategically place it next time. But, and improvement over 'bell thighs'! My TD is a bit askew - my wife didn't want to scratch my armor, even after I told her "It's going to happen a LOT". Thighs hitting my butt a bit - goes with the above note that adjustment is still needed. I am thinking about darkening the inside of my helmet - maybe just a layer of black duct tape on the face and tubes - I had no idea so much white is visible from the back. Maybe thin out the padding at the top to drop it down a bit as well. Belt is too tight, that's why there is a split at the top of the ab/kidney. I'm going to have to go with a suspender system for the upper body - was hoping to avoid that, but it will be necessary, I think. I just noticed how high my chest is as well...yup, suspenders are going to be necessary... One other thought is that the elastic between my chest/ab is kind of slack - would tightening that help pull it down? I have NOTHING on Kim Kardashian (sp?)...no gluteus maximus...more like minimus. Not going to spring for cosmetic surgery...maybe I can stuff a pillow (or two!) down the back of my compression pants. I could let out the strap between my cod/butt a little - it's not too tight now, but it could help the buttplate move back a bit. Requisite 'action' pic. My thighs are all over the place! I tried walking upstairs and found out a couple of things - my shins dig down into the top of my foot, one of my ab/groin snap straps needs to be replaced/looked at - it came loose, and I might need to cut a bit off the backs of the thighs to let my legs bend more naturally. Also, while you can't really see it in the pics above, my right shoulder bell needs to come up more - it was moving out of position a lot. I took Brian's advice and moved them up & forward - the left one is sitting just fine, the right one needs some tweaking. Oh, and I obviously wasn't wearing my neck seal - I have the 'stunt' one and will either need the 'hero' version or wear a balacava (sp?)...which won't be comfortable since we're hitting triple digits in Austin already. Let me know what kind of additional thoughts ya'll might have. I'll be doing the tweaking, but how do you think it looks as far as possibly submitting my 501st application photos? I'd like to get my TK # soon!

I got mine from Trooperbay - they worked for me (pix of them installed in my build thread)

Thanks for the feedback about the shoulder bells - I'll give that a try (moving the point of contact forward). The bicep re-positioning is also no problem. I'm looking forward to getting the thighs adjusted and DONE! Yes, thank goodness for E6000 and its forgiveness when things go wrong.

Ok, after yesterday's set-back, I regroupled and got some more stuff done - trimmed the thighs by 1" on each - a little less room, and i'll see how it goes with padding before I remove any more. I also did a couple of little things like get the snaps to hold the holster on and glue the drop boxes together and to the belt (rivets to be added once I get some washers). I also trimmed out the inside of my helmet so that it isn't right up against my windpipe, put the "S" trim on and started painting the vocoder. To any of ya'll who did hand painting for everything on your helmet, mine is off to you! I will be looking for someone with a steady hand to finish cutting the curves on the vocoder, and using the 'hand-painted' decals when I go for centurion. To finish off the helmet for Centurion I'll need to drill out the rivets to add the 3rd screw - is there a tutoral for that? Since I'm giving my thighs another nite to cure, I thought i'd put on everything else (but the holster & TD...didn't think about that until after we took pix) and get some uploads going for your viewing amusement and feedback. I didn't cut all of my elastics the same length, so the spacing will be kind of all over the place on the upper body. I'll be using these pix (and your feedback) to see where I need to have less gap or can allow more. I was short 3 for the right side ab/kidney, so I taped for the sake of getting these taken: I'm going to have to get used to the limited field of view with the helmet on...had to ask my daughter to find and hand me my blaster for those last two pix (to quote Luke, "I can't see a thing in this helmet" . Anyways, I have a connection between the shoulder & bicep that I didn't test out this time. I will also be adding the snaps to connect the belt to the ab, maybe tonight. I am also seriously considering adding foam padding to my butt plate

Ah, the ups & downs of armor building. Today, while doing my preliminary fitting of the legs, I learned a very important lesson: no matter how well the build is going, there is no excuse for gluing before you measure & fit. I figured that since the overlap construction was working so well on the arms that I should just go ahead & do the legs and adjust afterwards...very, very bad idea. While I used to have some pretty-well developed quads from years of cycling, since I have ceased to do that & just run instead, the muscle mass has been replaced with lean muscle from running. Same for my glutes, as you will see below. Well, maybe that won't be so bad if I add some padding, let's see what everything looks like when it's on my body: Yes, I have no posterior side: There is a lot of space showing between the calf & thigh, both of which will be trimmed a bit for comfort/ability to sit. The calves were biting pretty hard up top. The thighs are sitting pretty high in the first full frontal pic, so I pushed them down in the two below - which looks better? I haven't attached them to my garters yet, and have a plan to make them adjustable to dial in the proper fit: So, I pulled them apart in the back, fitted & taped them to a proper fit, and here's what the trimming is going to look like: So much for using all-overlap construction. The molded overlaps will have to go and then it will be straight-edge to straight edge followed by a cover strip, right? If I do that and happen to build up my thighs later in life, would I be able to just use shims & a wider cover strip, or would I be looking at purchasing new r/l thighs? Bummer, dude - oh, well - nothing that can't be fixed. I had a small hope I'd be finishing up this weekend, but it doesn't look that way at all. It actually measures about 3" total, so I would trim about 1.5" from each side? I was thinking maybe 1.25, just to be on the safe. (that is Thelma, my wife's Basset in the background holding that dog bed to the floor & keeping the closet door shut ) Moving on, I designed an adjustable belt using my left over webbing I bought for snap plates. I bought some buckles & triglides from REI: A quick cut and now I have a belt that is adjustable for added girth (around the holidays, after a pizza buffet lunch, etc.). I'm going to loop the garters over the top of the belt and for adjustment purposes use the extra triglides to move them up & down to get the thighs in proper position. So, that's the state of the build. Fit them again, measure a couple of times, trim & glue...and remember to SLOW DOWN and do it right the first time!

Ok, made some progress tonight & actually documented it with pictures. I tried to finish off the little details on the upper body - mainly trimming and finishing off the snap plates along with the details necessary for EIB/Centurion Hole for the right side snap - on the holes I made for this & the split rivets I used my exacto knife to make the pilot holes. I did this primarily because I was afraid of the tip of the drill bit slipping and making a(ll) the holes off-center (see: my Doopys Hasbro build ) Holes marked for split rivets: One down, 3 to go: I couldn't find a tutoral on installing the split rivets and info I found on-line used specially designed tools, so I was on my own. I got the split started by putting a flat blade screwdriver and moving it back & forth. Once there was a little spread, I used two needle-nose pliers (one pair was right-angle) to spread them further. Then I used pliers to squeeze the head of the rivet against the splits to get it as flat as I could. Finally, I used a hammer to bang them the rest of the way down, with a piece of scrap ABS between the rivet & my work bench. Obviously, all of them got scratched up by the pliers & will need repainting. Finished ab plate: I repeated the process on the kidney plate, and then started gluing snap plates. I wasn't paying attention to the proximity of the ab and kidney...and this was the result: can you say 'sticky situation'? After an expletive-filled rant, I was able to get everything separated and the magnets back into place. When I was measuring to see how much of my ab to trim, I noticed that my chest was riding high, so I moved the snap plates a bit to see if that would help: So, tomorrow when the snap plates are done I'll see about making final adjustments on the upper body. If I can get a belt at some point over the weekend I'll be starting on the lower body. Speaking of lower body, here's my sniper plate: And the battery pack on the thigh. I have drilled the holes for the split rivets on that as well but haven't installed them yet. It had been curing for 48 hours, but when i removed the clamps i noticed a gap on one side, so I squirted more E6000 into it & re-clamped: I was at a low point in my build last night but all of the progress I made today helped me out tremendously . I realize that I have a lot left to do and tweak and there are more challenges ahead, but it's getting closer to submission standards every day!

One other thing I wanted to ask is for advice about gluing the shoulder straps to the chest. I thought the sniper plate was challenging, that was nothing compared to getting those aligned! I've already had to tear one off & re-glue it to get them some what symmetrical. Is there an advised way to get these on symetrically, or is it something I have to play with to get right?

No pictures again - my photographer was using my camera in 'panorama' mode...so nothing usable came out. What I did discover is that some of my snap plates weren't hammered down all the way, so connecting wasn't happening in some spots. So, spent time rectifying that and calculating how many more snap plates I'll need to complete this build. I decided I'm going to use velcro while doing the fitting, specifically in the shoulder bell connnections, both to the bicep and where it connects to the chest/back strap, this way I can nail down where it should go for the best fit before gluing snap plates. I'll also do this when adjusting the thighs to make sure they will be in the right postion. I did get the TD put together, and the belt is also assembled - just needs the holster attached. The elastic I glued to the backs of the drop boxes are attached to the belt with velcro - I am rivet-gun impaired and once I figure out how to use that they'll be permanently attached. The holster will use snaps to attach to the belt. One other note about the belt - the one that came with the kit didn't come with button covers, and the middle one is smaller than the ones on the l/r sides, so I'm not sure what to do about covering that. For now I'm using snap plates glued to the back to attach to the canvas belt. I cross-posted on another thread that was a question about trimming the kidney. My kidney/ab overlap, so something will need to be trimmed. As I understand it, the edge of the kidney that connects to the ab should align with the edge of the butt plate, correct? So, if they do overlap, I should trim from the ab plate, right? I'm going into a busy weekend, so I don't think that i'll have much time to work on my armor. I do have plenty of questions about how to go about the fitting, but they will all need pictures to go along with them...I'm kind of frustrated at myself for not providing them up until now so I can get feedback from ya'll. It's a stage of the build where everything is assembed...but now needs to all fit together and it is a bit overwhelming for me since everything up until now went so smoothly.

Mine is actually mis-spelled from what I originally intended it to be. I wanted to have something relatively anonymous (early days of the internet...), but also an obscure reference to something. Originally, it was going to be "Boom Shanka" (and I still might be mis-spelling it). If you recognize what it refers to, you're old and/or have an appreciation for old British TV comedies.

Not to threadjack, but I'm approaching the same stage of my build. So, the kidney is supposed to align with the edge of the butt plate, Is the ab supposed to align with the cod? I'll need to trim my ab, would I trim the cod as well (they're not connected, obviously)?

Gahhhh...tried to organize my photobucket & killed the links...oh, well. If anyone wants a specific shot of my build pls PM me

Hello Dan - I am a bit taller than you (6'3") and I ordered the RT-MOD kit from Rob and so far it is coming together very well. I am using overlap construction so far, so you would likely have to trim & butt-join for most of the kit. The AM lite kit would also be good for you size-wise - so I understand. They were my 2nd choice, but I didn't want the hassle of finding a helmet. I know the ATA helmet is a good one, and reasonably priced, but the lead time may be a bit long. The helmet that came with my kit was pre-assembled. Rob does sell the helmets separately, so I would inquire with him if you're interested. Good luck!

I'm in a holding pattern once again with my build...this time for a major sunburn on my neck/shoulders - my upper body armor is snap plated & ready for some trimming/adjustments...but it is PAINFUL to wear my underarmor shirt so it will be a day or two until I can get that done & post pictures for guidance and feedback. I did get the backs of the thighs glued and decided to let them cure another day (along with the sniper plate on the left shin). I am planning to do a 'hidden garter' system to hold the thighs up. I'll have the elastic hanging from a belt and then run the garters through some slits cut at the top of the thighs in my under armor bottoms. The slits will be covered by the top of the thighs so the snap plates will be about 3/4 of the way up the inside of the thigh. I think it sounds good in theory, but we'll see how it turns out. I need to stop by a seamstress/alteration shop to get the slits cut & stitched. I'm feeling good about the build and need to get the thermal detonator and belt assembled. I'm projecting a weekend 'completion' date...but it won't be ready for ComicCon in San Antonio - the cod will need to be trimmed and I don't know by how much until I can wear it with the thighs attached, which has to wait for the garters to be put together. It's an endless cycle of "I'll do this, but have to wait for this to be done first, and...". Pics will be coming...once my neck doesn't feel like it had a belt sander run over it!

Ok, thighs trimmed and front side glued - took all of my magnets to do so, but they are setting. I also glued the sniper plate, taking Darth Aloha's advice to 'clamp the poop' out of it. I'll also heed his advice to let it cure at least 48 hours, so no leg adjustments till the weekend, which is fine. I made the strap for the chest/back, but haven't attached the shoulder bells to anything. The cod/butt are also attached by elastic/snaps. My photographer is running late, so I thought i'd see if I could get some pictures by myself using my camera phone, since I STILL haven't picked up a card reader for my good camera...this weekend I should be able to get some better shots with her assistance and more snap plates installed, as you can see armor sticking out all over the place in the (terrible) pictures below: With a touch-screen phone I had to leave one glove off to take pictures... In the last picture I was getting frustrated with not keeping everything tucked under my belt, so I taped my cod/butt... My shoulder bells are just taped to the elastic for the chest/back. I'm not sure if you can see if my back needs to be trimmed around the arm hole or not. Let me also say that I only had the center snap plate installed on all pieces (except the chest, hence the tape), so that is why my butt/kidney/cod are sticking out when I could not get them tucked under the belt. I was pleased that I could put my helmet on/off without too much difficulty and no armor bite on my arms. I also need to glue the elastic between the bicep and forearm - my magnets will be freed up tomorrow night, so that and more snap plates will be the next part of the build. I can't really do much with the legs except tape the thighs in the back to see how they fit - I expect they will need to be trimmed. Fun stuff, but I'm getting a little antsy to finish it off... Stay tuned, more to come soon!

I don't have anything to add to the discussion of the topic, but I never knew how the stock on an E-11 folded out until now - kind of embarassing to admit, since I've always liked guns. I hope you find a solution - thanks for the pictures

I'll second the comment that Rob does a great job making his armor. Everything just fits together with my kit (so far) - minimal trimming and sanding.

Quick update - I am terrible about documenting my build with pictures, but they will be coming once I start fitting in earnest Besides, magnet placement and blue tape are not that exciting. For the most part my magnets have been tied up in gluing the shins or snap plates inside the torso...I bought 40 and wish I had 80, a sentiment I echo from many build threads I have perused. Here's the state of the build: Forearms and biceps - glued and velcro'd (forearm underside) Shoulder bells - glued in elastic to hold bicep Handguard that came with kit - elastic wrist and hair tie for middle finger glued Shins - glued and velcro'd (in back). I did have to trim just a little bit on each for the overlap (going that route for now as everything fits just fine that way!) 2 snaps in buttplate crotch area - done Brad in codpiece - done - glued a snap plate over the top of it to kind of help hold it in place. I might have to reposition the snap plate later Snap plates along the center line of butt, kidney, cod, ab (lower edge) - done. I will lay out the armor and glue the snap plates left/right of center snap probably tomorrow night - most of my magnets will be in use tonight when I glue the front of my thighs. Snap plates at top of back and chest - glued Tonight is thigh gluing (front) - I'll need to trim a bit to get the overlap lined up. Once those are glued I will break out the blue tape, put my boots/shins on, and start in with pictures again for advice on trimming the back side. I'm not sure if overlap will work on the back side - my thighs have slimmed down over the years so I think that the thigh pieces will be too big, but we'll see. I made 4 elastic snap plates so I can put together the torso along the center line for fitting. I'll have to tape the chest/ab since I haven't put any snap plates along the top of ab/bottom of chest. I'll probably put together the 2 white ones for attaching the back/chest so I can work on trimming the upper body. I know for sure the kidney and ab will need to be cut along the sides, and I think that the back will need to be trimmed a bit where it comes in around my ribs/underarm. My photographer will be back tonight so I can get pictures of that for ya'll's feedback. Over the weekend I'll borrow a heat gun so I can start shaping the belt and thigh battery pack. Does anyone have 3 spare button covers for the belt? If not I can just cut some squares, heat it up with the heat gun and put a indentation in the middle on my own... I think that is about where everything is for now. The ab came with some plastic buttons installed, but I might pop those out for the metal ones I have painted. If I have any magnets available I'll glue the elastic strip between the bicep & forearms

Thanks - the more I thought about it I realized a full roll would be overkill - and they were limited on what they had left, so I got their last 4 yds...good enough to start with. I have about 50 snaps already, the female sides made into snap plates...but will probably pick up a couple of extra packs to be on the safe side. I glued the other side of the biceps and one side of the forarms yesterday, will apply velcro to the other side tonight. So far I have just done overlap construction as it does fit that way, but leaves me the option to tear it back down & butt join it. I am thinking i'll velcro/tape the arms tonight and snap some pictures for feedback. The shoulder bells might need to be trimmed back a bit, even with my long arms. Rob supplied a bunch of velcro with the kit I can use to put it together so I don't have to get into the good stuff I have for later in the build. I did not purchase lexan scissors when I was gathering tools/parts for my build - they should be available at hobby shops, right? The snips I have at home murder ABS...tried cutting on a piece of scrap and it wasn't pretty. I'll tape the upper body together again tonight and take some side view pictures. When I did it the other night it felt like the back plate will need to be cut back a bit where it goes under my arm, but I might not have had it in the right spot on my back (home alone, needed and extra set of hands...).

Hey Aaron - yes, the abs, kidney & cod all need to be trimmed. The abs & kidney need about 1" taken off and the cod needs to be slimmed slightly. I was walking upstairs and had to do so slightly bowlegged. I expect to have to trim a bit more once I have the thighs on. So I overlapped on one side of each of the biceps: Yes, that is a Mandolorian helmet in the back corner - a side project that I will cover in another build thread when I can get back to it. My TK build trumps that Oops...that's going to be fun to pry off of my workbench! removed all of the return edge on the end of the forearms: started on coverstrips for the forearm: I'm just going to take of 8mm on the upper side of each and butt join/cover strip I realized after I cut this one that I had cut 1/8" instead of 8mm...so I went back and re-cut to the proper width. Cutting strips is challenging to me, unfortunately. Even when I clamp the straight edge on top of the plastic to use as a guide, i'm cutting some slight 'waves'... I am going to see if there is a local plastic fabrication shop that I can go to and get all the cover strips I will need cut so they will all be even. I haven't cut the forearms yet, but if I overlap them they are just about the amount I would trim if I butt-join them...i'm starting to think about just doing that instead of cutting and velcro the bottoms. I am guessing that it will be up to my GML to approve it if I just do overlaps where the armor pieces already fit? It would save me a lot of grief if they all fit that way, and also speed up the build tremendously I'll shoot him an email to check on that. One question I have is about cutting the ab/kidney, and I'll clarify with pictures later if I don't explain it clearly enough here: if I set the pieces standing up, I will be cutting perpendicular, correct? I noticed that there is a slight angle to them on the edges, and if I were to use that as my guide the ab could be tilting slightly forward at the top. Of course I'm asking this before I look at any screencaps that might answer my own question, but if anyone could answer this before I do I'd appreciate it!

Hello Aaron - I'm 6'3" - just inside the guideline measurements Rob has for his suit. It didn't ship with a vinyl or fabric belt, but I think it used to ship with a pleather one, which might be ok for 501st certification, but not for EIB/Centurion. The old one he used to ship (or still does - I didn't get one) apparently was not of the highest quality, or so I understand from other RT-MOD build threads.

Ok - ignore the pictures above. I taped together the upper body and feel better about the kidney & butt. The cod and back are going to need some trimming, along with the ab/kidney - they overlap each other by at least 1" on each piece. Front side: Back side: I also have overlap glued the biceps (after sanding them down a bit) and removed the return edges on both forearms. Tonight I'm going to cut an 8mm guide strip so I can cut down the top of the forearms and maybe get them glued together as well - at least an inside reinforcement strip so connecting them will be a bit easier. I bought 40 rare earth magnets and I think all of them will be in use tonight! I am feeling a bit better about cutting stuff now - although all i have cut so far is a couple of 2mm tabs off the forearms I forgot to get a card reader while I was out buying elastic, so no pics from my real camera till tomorrow of the arms. On the elastic note, I bought 1" black elastic, but all they had was the ribbed style, not the knit. I am hoping that that won't be a problem...I'll keep looking since I have a bit of time until I will need that.

Ok, one last, last thing...here are a couple of pictures. Front side (taped) Have a bit to trim on the sides of ab/cod. Is everything sitting about where it should in front? I'm asking because... The back feels like that's where it should be, but there is a lot of real estate between it & my kidney plate. The kidney/ab are lined up with each other at the top on the sides. Is the kidney sitting too low? I should have tucked in the shirt & taken side shots - will try that tomorrow and do pix while my biceps/forearms are drying.