Clamps

Another day, another pile of trimmings. All limbs are trimmed to my son's size. While 2" shorter than my daughter, he is definitely thicker in all areas. Here are the trimmed limbs pre- glueing: Poor girl is a beam pole, gonna have to pad it out when she wears it: On the bucket topic, I pulled out the Hovi tips and plan to install them farther back, which means I'll have to lose a bit of the back half to the inside of the bucket. But it's really needed so they do not stick out so far and look like protruding tusks. Photos to come once I size things down and install.

well done newsletter team!!

ah, so I got it in my head that I wanted to trim the though ammo belt. Using the common tutorial of a paint can to make the curve on a full size kit, I measured a paint can outer diameter and then reduced that measurement by 20%. So I went from 65mm to 52mm. I then devices that in half and used a cutting compass to knock out a 52mm circle out of spare ABS. I then cut that in half and used it to align to the end/bottom of the thigh ammo pack and traced the curve. finally, Lexan scissors to cut and topped off with a bit of 240 grit sandpaper. Voila:

I started with my lexan scissors but gave up as it was too thick. So I pulled out the tin snips and it was a breeze. A light sand after that and all good.

Today we started things off with a final trim/sand of the last couple of pieces. And then it was time for a dip in the wash bucket, rinse bucket and a wipe dry. I utilized some child labour to make this easy one while I held the beers (that's right I said beers plural don't judge me). The. It was time to size the limbs. To do this I used white duct take to hold the front ridged seems closed. The challenge I have is that they kit will be shared with both kids. Why is that a challenge when they are only 2" difference I. Height? Well my daughter is build like a string bean. My some like a brick house. So we do measurements on the boy. And for my daughter I will install Velcro padding to minimize the rattle. Here are the limb parts taped up and ready for cutting. This is a point of no return in the build process, so I may wait one extra day just to be sure I am Happy with the cut lines.

What do you get when you mix a beautifully sunny Saturday afternoon, TK 9418 "Pony Boy" Ken Morse, a palm sander, a Dremel with a sanding drum, pizza, wings, ME and a bunch of Tall Boy Coors?? A whole sh!t ton of ABS scraps and dust! 95% of kit is trimmed and sanded. Time to get things moving to fitting stage.

Congrats on your EIB Diana!

no need to apologize, taking care of babies is hard work mr man!

I received no S-trim (and didn't have any on hand). I used the supplied U-channel material for both the neck and brow. I think once the kit is done, I will likely go back and work on the Hovis to do Mariannie has done, but right now I want to move focus to the rest of the kit. IF all goes to plan, all trimming and sanding will be completed over the weekend, then I can focus on assembly. As for holster I have a spare. There is really no way to get a holster to scale that fits a normal sized blaster, so I will add snaps and if they want to have holster, I will attach. If it bothers them, then I will not connect. I gotta start pulling together materials for neck seal and belt soon, and definitely need to find boots!

Then I added ears and lens at same time screwed things nice and snug but not over-tightened. There was some additional paint touch up done after the photos, so the tears and trap line shapes were tweaked a bit to be more like my bucket. Then added brow trim and then neck trim. Here you can see shaped lens material. Here is the Walt 80 vs AP

Bucket progress: While faceplate was off I marked the holes on one side of the lens material. Once I drilled holes. I inserted with screws ( no ear) and marked other side. Drilled those and re inserted with screws. Then I used a sharpie to outline excess material. Removed it and cut it down. I then sealed things up, first with two rivets per side. Notice I BooBoo'd one hole on the left but it's hidden under ear. I used screws to hold things in place when riveting. I anchored the rivets with a spare tab of ABS.

Credit goes to Wolfman in his build of your kit. all the the Hovi related ideas are straight outta his build!

Ok good progress tonight. Last coats of paint on the bucket. Just need to so a whee bit of touch up work in a few places. And a little cleanup on a couple of spots where I oops'd. I installed screen in the Hovi. I too, like Wolfman had issues with the metal Screen provided. It's so thin that its shape distorts when cut that small. So I too used black plastic mesh cut to appropriate size. Then used silver sharpie to colour it. Dropped it in and added a bit of CA glue. I then added mouth mesh. I prefer to gaffe tape it in versus glue. Less messy and easy to remove if needed. I then added tube stripes. I am tempted to remove them and do full hand paint. But I'm just so over painting right now. Maybe later. Finally a side project. In plan to take an unmodded Hasbro E11 and do a quick paint job for the kids to use. I don't REALLY need to do it as I have 3 other E11s but what the heck. This one has not "fired" since late 2012 when my son dropped it. So I finally opened it up and found the positive lead solder connection popped off. This will be a pretty easy fix. But not tonight. Tired = mistakes.

Oops. I accidentally typed in my sizes from my full size kit. Should be in the vacinity of what Walt noted: 13 arms 16 shin front and thighs 20 rear shin

Waiting for paint to dry I knocked out the coverstrips. Final length and corner trims will come during assembly. I tested a few sizes and landed with ~15mm for biceps and forearms, 20mm for thighs and shin fronts and 25mm for shin rear. I also cut. 10mm and 7.5mm strip to help marking the individual halves.

It's been a very busy last few days with work and life stuff, but I have squeezed in a few moments on the kit, specifically painting the bucket. I am probably one of the worst painters alive, so my full sized bucket is still decals. No option on this bucket, so it aint gonna be the best paint job you will ever see. That said, I went with the method of laying the blacks first. I decided to cover entire traps and such in black to allow for there to be consistency with the greys when I lay them on. Here is a shot showing the blacks all down, 2 coats. I am VERY happy with the Vocoder. Everyting else is decent so far. Now, time for some Testors 1138! Only one coat done so far. I will have to go back with the blacks for some touchups on a few of the lines. Overall, pretty happy with the progress, sloppy, but meh, whatever. coat number 2 goes down tonight. By week's end I will have full construction complete and then over the weekend I will finally get around to final sizing, trimming and sanding steps of the body.

Man. That is one logical solution. Nice!

Spent a little time with the bucket tonight, I had planned to so some cleanup on the body, but as soon as I got the dremel out and plugged in on the patio, a thunderstorm arrived… I spent time doing trimming work on the ears first. As you will see, these are not final fitting, I'd say 90% to my liking at this point. I prefer a bit of wonkiness and gap in the ears versus perfectly flush... Left Ear was fairly easy trim and fit: Right ear was a real mutter-fudge. but I kept working the sticking points to get things in the right ballpark. I then had a go at the mic tips as noted above. I used a 1/2" forstner bit to create the receiving holes: I then dropped in the tips. They fit in quite nicely and will allow plenty of surface area to receive the glue (not yet applied) . One minor concern I have is that the tips extend too far out of the faceplate, even when full inserted as far back as they will go. and for fun, here is the bucket on one the future troopers: next steps are to take it all apart, do some fine sanding, finish cleaning up the teeth and eyes and then give it all a wash and dry. Painting will come after that and then final assembly.

Spent a little time with the bucket tonight, I had planned to so some cleanup on the body, but as soon as I got the dremel out and plugged in on the patio, a thunderstorm arrived… I spent time doing trimming work on the ears first. As you will see, these are not final fitting, I'd say 90% to my liking at this point. I prefer a bit of wonkiness and gap in the ears versus perfectly flush... Left Ear was fairly easy trim and fit: Right ear was a real mutter-fudge. but I kept working the sticking points to get things in the right ballpark. I then had a go at the mic tips as noted above. I used a 1/2" forstner bit to create the receiving holes: I then dropped in the tips. They fit in quite nicely and will allow plenty of surface area to receive the glue (not yet applied) . One minor concern I have is that the tips extend too far out of the faceplate, even when full inserted as far back as they will go. and for fun, here is the bucket on one the future troopers: next steps are to take it all apart, do some fine sanding, finish cleaning up the teeth and eyes and then give it all a wash and dry. Painting will come after that and then final assembly.

@biggynerd pour moi

Welcome to the EIB ranks trooper.

Congrats great job. Now get out there and recruit more EIB/Centurion troopers!!

Don't worry about it

If you remove the full nub. My concern would be that the faceplate portion would be quite bumpy to allow the tip to adhere well when glued. I'd hate for it to get knocked off while trooping or when kids put on or take off. Do you have any photos of this area of a finished bucket using this method?

Ok upon close inspection I have a plan of attack on the tips provided. Here are close ups of front, side and rear view. Here is the faceplate area where the tips go: Ok so here is the plan. Step one: Trim here to make nice and straight-ish: Then drill out a decent hole through the base into the fully open main Hovi section Then add screens to tips Then drill out faceplate to insert Hovi base. I will use e6000 to secure outter and inner areas of contact with faceplate. I will tackle this and ears this week as time allows. Trooping got in the way again today