SIMpixels

Thanks fellas, more pics on their way!

Great stuff Andy, keep it up!

Hi all. Just my hand plates to finish, I'm halfway through painting them at the moment. Other than that (and a spot of paint on my knee ammo cap rivets) I'm done! I'm so excited and couldn't resist suiting up fully for the first time last night and snapping a couple of pics for my instagram followers: I shall post some better pre-clearance pics soon so you can advise on any areas that may need tweaking before I submit proper. It's 42 days from when my brown box arrived. I'm pretty pleased with that for my first kit. Si.

Nice work! Better hooks than mine! Si.

Cheers Phil, won't be long now!

Woohoo! I got a "Huzzah!" from Billy! Cheers bud. Thanks Steve, but I dunno about that. On most of my stuff I just cut, file, sand and hope it turns for the best. Cheers Glen, I didn't imagine that would happen! Huge thanks Eric, very happy to see my first ever tutorial up there. Makes me feel like I'm actually contributing to the site now. I hope that folk find it useful. Si.

OK, I'm back after my Christmas break, hope you all had fun. Spent last night gluing strips and sewing bits of elastic. I did my biceps hooks too, here's how. Started with a 22x90mm offcut of 2mm ABS, shaped it, marked it up as shown and filed grooves to help with the bending. Warmed it with a cigarette lighter one bend at a time, pressing it against a flat surface until I got the shape I wanted. Filed off the charred bits, sanded smooth and glued in place. Done.

It was my understanding that there were additional amendments to the CRL that were voted on and passed (http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/index.php?/topic/21460-Proposed-Amendments-to-the-Centurion-Requirements-?page__view__findpost__p__266358) In that, the line regarding boots was: Boots must either be worn or not and match condition of armour. Do not mix battle worn boots with pristine armour or the reverse. I believe that the currently available CRL has yet to be updated to reflect these amendments. I was keen to see this one passed as I too wanted the "factory fresh" look for my build.

Toffee pennies for everyone!! Have spent the past few days trimming and sticking. The final cover strip on my left thigh is drying as I type. Some strips still to go on my right forearm and my right thigh parts are still yet to be trimmed. Feels like I'm really getting somewhere with it all though. I have sorted my belt this evening. Position-wise, does it look about right? Before I add the poppers to the ab plate I wanted to be sure it was sitting right. Just below where the button plate will be (once I've glued it on).And yes, I know I haven't covered the rivets yet. I also need to trim some excess from the sides of the bib around my neck seal. Is that usually the case or do you guys leave it? Si.

I've now trimmed up my left thigh and the first inner strip is gluing. Time to treat myself to a choccy. After all, it is nearly Christmas!

Nice work, thanks Billy. Your diagrams are great!

Thank you Gentlemen.

No worries Phil, I'll put some pics together for that once I've finished the build. The rivets weren't shortened down, in hindsight it might have been a good idea to file a mm or two off it. I'll know for next time. Once the male snap part was over the rivet I used a large flat blade screwdriver to open the split just enough to get my popper tool into the gap to open the rivet fully. Then hit it with the screwdriver again to make sure it was right down. It was a real hatchet job but it seemed to work. They did rotate a little bit once finished, but they were as close together as they'd go. A tiny drop of superglue on the inside of the male snap fixed the rattle.

Thanks Andy, how is yours progressing? I sure did Phil, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth. All 7 spots that require a split rivet have a male snap fixed behind.

Thanks fellas, here are a few more torso pics (proper camera this time).

After a few more days of trimming & gluing (then another weekend away), I'm back on track. Here's my first test fit of the torso armour, apologies for the pics. (shock, horror, photographer takes mirror selfies with his phone!!) With those side gaps I won't be heading for EIB any time soon. Meh! (I don't want to go down the shimming route, I prefer to go the slimming route). Once I'm back down to my usual weight it'll fit a bit better, but here it is as of today. Thoughts?

Cheers bud, I'll get cracking. (there's an echo, echo, echo...)

I have now started trimming and fitting arm parts, right bicep first. As you'll probably tell from the pics, I don't have the biggest biceps in the world by any means. As it stands, it fits comfortably even when my arm is flexed. But then, in a moment of self doubt, I thought I'd better upload a pic for comment on my return edges. Do they look good enough for me to continue in the same vein with the rest of my parts? If so, I'll glue my joining strips on.

Good to see you've made a positive start Andy. Keep it up and well be on a troop together in no time! Si.

Hehehehe. Awesome pics of awesome armour Steve.

Thanks fellas. Have now completed trimming all the torso parts: And the glue on my detonator front panel is drying: All in all, a productive day.

Good to know, thanks Paul. The edges here are about 5-6mm and the bottom is about 9mm at its widest in the middle.

Thanks fellas. Right. As I'd never attempted anything like this before I started with the drop box inners (with the idea that if I made a hash of it, it'd be hidden away.) Thankfully all went well and I completed both drop boxes fairly easily. With my new found confidence I picked up my back panel and, with some reference pics open, began to pencil in my cut lines. Once satisfied I trimmed & sanded smooth. Opinion time folks, do I need to cut any more off or are these edges about right?

Unfortunately not, I was so into it that I didn't stop to take pics. But you're right, I did a primer coat and a satin black coat (or two) & let that harden for a couple of days. Then, using a flat ½" artists brush and a paint mixture of gunmetal grey and pewter I dry brushed it. I had a piece of cereal box card at the side of me, dipped the tip of the brush into the paint and then firmly ran it over the card until there was hardly any being deposited. Then, gently brushing the remaining paint over the areas that would potentially get worn, the colour slowly builds up. I never try to complete an area in one go as there's so little paint on the brush that a few strokes later you need to reload. I used the same technique on the scope but using metallic brass paint. As I was doing it I noticed a little chip in the black paint on the main scope body, so I turned that into a scratch using a finer artists brush. You can probably just make it out on the photos. The grip had the same satin finish as the rest of the blaster, but rather than mask it all off & paint it gloss, I just got out the T-Cut and buffed it to a shine for that plastic look.