dereferenced

Finished cutting out the teeth and trimmed the back of the helmet. First screw is in, now I can start working on the ears. I don't know why it took me this long but I also had the idea to use my lenses cleaner to blow the dust away rather than doing it myself and getting dust all over my face. Its also good to clean out computers instead of canned air.

Thanks. I was thinking something similar which is why I switched to working on the frown. The eye shapes looked clean to me when viewed from an angle, I was worried about taking off too much which is why I stopped where I did. Once the frown is done and I have the two parts connected I might revisit them. If anything it would be 2 mm or so by the bridge on each eye which would make them look pointier and make the bridge smaller perhaps. I will pencil in what I am thinking of trimming and post a picture later.

I started work on the helmet yesterday. I cut out the eyes and started on the frown. I am not sure if I need to cut the eyes closer to the nose. From looking at http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/16277-anh-stunt-and-hero-eyes-reference-pix/ it seems like I could come in a couple more mm. But I don't think they look that bad now. It just seems the bridge between the eyes is too wide. Any thoughts? The frown is a work in progress. I probably need to bring the bottom line down a bit more and perhaps clean up the tops slightly.That and the entire left side. Although there was a lot of variance from looking at http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/16270-anh-frown-reference-pix/

Finally started working on this again yesterday. Decided to make my snap plates for the armor. I used Billhags snap layout pictures to decide how many. After these pictures I made a few extras as I had some left over abs in the correct size. I did not finish hammering all the posts down as it was late and I decided to order a new snap setting tool. I tried vario pliers but they dont work well for the long posts, then I had a generic snap setting tool from joanns fabric which worked pretty well for the male snaps but not as well on the female. In the end I just bought the correct tandy leather setter for the line 24 snaps from ebay. So I will be putting the harness system on hold and working on the helmet! Snaps and rivets Layout (rivets will actually be places on the shims but I do not have those done yet)

Lack of updates due to travel for work. I am back and settled now so I should be making more progress this week. The forearms came out well enough. Barry I like the idea of white duct tape inside to hide the seams. I have to clean up all the excess glue on the outside and sand out some scratches from a few slips of my exacto knife. I got a pack of assorted fine grit wet/dry sandpaper from Amazon to do it. This weekend I hope to get the harness system together for the body pieces and arms. I would also like to start the helmet.

Very cool

Congrats

Assembling the Forearms Since I glossed over the trimming before, I figured I would put a bit more about it. It was very similar to the biceps but I did make a change. Instead of drawing the line on the armor, I drew it on a piece of tape and then taped it in place. I liked this as it let me get a better idea of the amount being removed and what would be left over. Mark the tape Apply on the seam I found it easier to keep the amount of space to the curve on the left with this method. Cut along the line Result I did this from the start on the second since it worked so well on the first. Glue the first seam As I posted before I glued the inner strip and coverstrip in one go. It would out very well. First I sanded then let the glue sit. Large pieces of tape to pull the two sides together better that way they dont separate over night. Wait for it to cure I gave it some extra time to be sure as my pieces required some force to close. Glue the second seam Ok so first I tried to do the same thing as the first seam. Where I glue both the inner and cover strip at the same time. This led to disaster when my cover strip was too high. Then I tried to move it everything got worse. In the end I had to scrape all the glue off for an hour or so as it was not salvagable. The second time around I decided to just glue the inner shim and had much better results. I would recommend doing the cover strip after your close seam is done. You are still left with the problem that you need both sides to be flat so you can apply a cover strip. To get around this I used scrap cover strip pieces taped up and some wood shims as well. Pull the two sides together First thing I did was add 3 large pieces of tape to one side. Then pulled the two pieces together in the middle and use the tape to hold it shut. I moved it around until I got the bottom lined up. Pull the other tape to get all the ends lined up. Then I marked with pencil in several places. This makes it much much easier when pulling them together with setting glue Inner strip I also taped the inner strip in place to make sure it would fit. I actually left it here folded back when I applied the glue. Glue and attach clamps No real good pictures of this as I needed both hands to do it. But I did the same thing with 3 pieces of tape ready on one side. Then pulled together matching up my pencil marks and apply the tape. From there I clamped both ends and started working on the middle with magnets. Notice the pieces inside and out to get the seams laying flat. Add tape and string to keep the sides from pulling away The goal is to get the two halves as close as possible and keep that way. I did a similar technique with the biceps. Since there was so much more pull I added string to help out, but the tape alone does a good job. Now I am waiting for that to cure and I'll do the cover strip and clean up all my excess glue.

Wow fantastic paint job.

Do you think you would be able to add shims and fill the seam with abs paste similar to kidney plate extensions? Not sure how long it would take to get a replacement piece since ATA is on a pretty large waiting list if I recall.

Trimming and Sanding the Shoulders I also took some time to clean up the shoulder bells. Cleaned up on the left, roughly trimmed on the right. After

Trimming Butt Piece Before After

Trimming the Kidney Plate Before After

Trimming the Ab plate Before Roughly Trimmed After

Trimming the Back Before After

Trimming Chest This weekend I spent some time trimming all the body pieces. Figured I would post a couple before and after shots. There are some in progress shots on my flickr if interested. Before After

I ended up gluing down the more curved side yesterday and I plan on using the heat gun to help shape the unclosed side today. Inner strip and coverstrip from the start this time. Then I used thicker tape to pull the two sides towards each other. I connected half the tape and then pressed the two ends towards each other /the shims and then pulled the tape down to hold that pressure.

I trimmed my forearms and sanded the rough edges out last night. As seen below. However, I am having a hard time closing them which I expected from what I read in other threads about this armor. But I am unsure how I should tackle the problem. I think it is due to how flat this side is on the outer piece. From the top View from the inside of both pieces in case that helps. My question is should I attempt to bend it with the heat gun before gluing down any of the sides or should I glue one down so I can get the shape better. If so would you recommend gluing the flat side connection first or side that appears to already be bent correctly. Any recommended approaches for where I should apply heat / pressure would also be helpful.

Looking good.

Cover Strips Redux So for this whole process I needed many more cover strips and I got pretty decent at them finally. Figured I would post an update for how I made them. I used LadyInWhite’s Guide as a reference. It was very helpful. Patience is a virtue The first time around I went in with the idea that it would be quick and easy. So I got a bit frustrated it took so long and came out poorly. Luckily those were just for the inner strips so no big deal. Changes this time around Clamp the strip and ruler to something. In my case I used LadyInWhite's idea of an old cutting board. I modified this a bit my putting a weight on the other end so I could have everything sit flat on the bench with my clamps hanging off. Cut at an angle Go slow, make it one smooth motion still but take time and let the ruler guide it. When you think you have made enough passes, make 3 more. I think I did around 15 passes, they get much easier as the cut gets deeper. Some completed strips There still may be some unevenness but I was above to sand it away pretty well. I used the 2 strips here cut in half for the biceps. So be mindful of how much material you have as it could save you some cutting. Sizes Biceps: 15mm x 170~180mm (4 strips) or 15mm x 350mm (2 strips) and cut in half Forearms: 15mm x 250mm (4 strips) Shin: 20mm x 360mm 2 strips 25mm x 320mm (I think, I will check my paper when I get home) Thighs: 20mm x 285mm (2 strips) 25mm x 390mm (2 strips) I went ahead and premarked my extra material for which strips I would use on different pieces. I wanted to try and minimize the cutting for the strips. The lengths are all very rough ballpark, but more mine I had some medium length strips and some longer and it just determined which I could use for the long thigh pieces and long shin pieces

Gluing Biceps Together Late last week I decided to start gluing my biceps together. Since I had not yet made my cover strips I decided to just do the inner seams and then add the cover strips on later. If I could go back I would have just made the cover strips and done the full joint all at once. Sand where gluing Since this was the underside I skipped taping it off. I used 100 grit sandpaper. Add the glue I put a strip down and then used a piece of wood to spread it. Wait for the glue to get sticky, 2-10 minutes says the tube Attach them together I started by putting the inner strip in and then lining the bottom edges up as you want the bottom flush for the biceps. I should have covered the piece with tape where I wanted to put the magnets. This made them very hard to get off and I ended up compromising one of the seams. Wait a day or so and start on the second seam I connected the bottom with tape first to get it to line up. Then added more support tape around. Glue the seam I already sanded previously when I glued the first seam. I spread it with a little wood piece. Wait for the glue to get sticky, 2-10 minutes says the tube Add in the shims Magnet/clamps Tape on the outside this time. I recommend this if you arent adding coverstrips right away. But I would probably just opt for cover strips from the start. Wait for them to cure You will notice tons of clamps on one. This is because when trying to get my glued magnets on the seal on the edge got messed up and started to popup. Adding Cover Strips Sand the area Glue Clamp I just did both sides from the start. The glue is setting and then I will clean up the glue and tweak the cover strip edges a bit. As always there are more pictures on my flickr photostream. If you want to see how much glue etc. Lessons Learned: Cover Strips are probably easier to add in one stage When taking magnets off hold both the inside and out and tear away. Otherwise the loose magnets will jump to the other stack Tape underneath your magnets just in case You can't have too many clamps or magnets

I almost forgot. I wanted to check and see if anyone had a recommendation for joining the two halves. Some people seem to glue the inner shim to a side first and then join them after the inner shims have dried. Others doing both halves and the inner to start. And then some people do the inner both halves and both strips right away. I am assuming it is a bit safer to join the inner strip and the halves before the cover in case you do have to modify. But what is the thought behind the inner shim on one side before attaching the other? Is it that much safer?

Bicep Edge Sanding Remember how badly I initially trimmed those biceps ... well time to pay the price. Oh yeah ready for some sanding! First clean up the nice cuts I just made for the joining halves I did not really get any pictures of the sanding as you need 2 hands. But my process is usually, sanding block coarse, then some hand held paper to touch up spots. More sanding blocks going down to very fine and finally 400 by hand. And I mean holding the paper without a sanding block when I say by hand. These pictures are just to show how much plastic is remaining etc. Before sanding Bottom before sanding Outer Bottom After Outer Bottom Comparison sanded vs not sanded Outer Top Edge Outer Sanded vs No sanding Out Both sanded top Outer Bottom Both sanded Inner Bottom Before After Compare Both Remember this Fixed it Comparison Starting the seconds It was about 4 am so I didnt really take many in progress shots but I tried to snap what I did. I would use the block at the angle I wanted for those 2 inner sides and deal with the center by hand. And finished Standing up Stressful but exciting night. It is really cool when stuff starts to come together.

Fitting and Trimming Biceps Yesterday I took the plunge and decided to start majorly cutting up a piece. From reading everyone else's posts I was scared off of doing the forearms which was my initial plan. In the end I think I would recommend biceps for people to start with for a couple of reasons. First of all the edges you have to match up are much shorter in length, which helps when you have no clue what you're doing. Secondly, a lot of the piece is going to be hidden so any mistakes you may make can be more easily hidden. Initial Trimming Since this is an overlap kit I need to cut each side in half basically so that when I join them together its the same width. This is where my 8mm guide strip comes into play. So I line my strip up close to the bend where the raised edge starts. Tape worked pretty well here until all the plastic dust got to it. If you have larger arms I would recommend starting further out from that raised edge. As when you trim from each side it adds up quick even though it looks like you arent taking too much. Sure now I can draw straight. Wait nope, you can see the tape idea falling flat Now we are talking! Love these mini ratcheting clamps You can see I am not very good at this line thing, sandpaper will fix it later. Some of the initial lines for cutting Cutting the lines I used the large sheers to get about 3-4mm out and then the lexan Not too bad Comparison Didnt look like that much when we were cutting. Rough line up of two sides Second side Getting better With a 15mm cover Taping them up Best Process: Use a big piece of tape along one edge so half the tape is sticking off and then join the second piece. Add horizontal for support and tape the inside seam. Now on the other side... no way that will hold right? I was surprised how easily it held Both taped: Can you tell which I did second? Trying them on Too much room for my tastes. Decided to go back at it. Didn't I just do this? Hmm but not that good before Trimmed vs Retrimmed I felt like I was barely taking anything off but you can tell it adds up fast fast fast. Armor for my armor Much better Both trimmed Check my photostream for the amount I took off the other side if you are curious.

Cover Strips and you Started the day off with the goal of I will quickly make some cover strips for my forearms and biceps. A couple straight lines and an exacto knife how hard could it be... Update: For my new way see post , all credit to LadyInWhite Sizing General consensus around the forums is that the sizing is 15mm arms, 20mm legs from 25mm legs back. But the consensus says do what looks good on you. So there is room to play with sizes. Read more here. Why cover strips? Its more accurate and looks cool. Seems easier to making armor fit you as well. Plus you can mess up your internal edges and no one will be the wiser. Image from the arms tutorial. Alright so the plan was make 8 inner strips, and 8 cover for the 2 forearms and biceps. I also wanted to make a guide for trimming the armor to fit. So 8mm strip I can use to align on the overlap in the armor to know how much I need to cut off. I was going to do all of this in an hour or so I thought. Getting started with Score and Snap Measure in from the edge and mark one each end of the material. Line up the ruler. CLAMPS! Easily score a straight line all the way down Slow and repetitive Or not ... I had to go over the line a lot of times and it was not straight in the end. How I snapped it. My amazing results! Sandpaper to the rescue I cleaned it up a bit more later. Getting started with scissors! Ok so that didnt work that well, back to scissors. Not much to comment on here is a series of pictures of it. Pencil lines on the rough cuts Sandpaper again! Alright you see both of them done now. The small one is the guide and the larger one I would use for 2 inner strips on my biceps. Are they perfectly straight? Nope but they seemed to do the job. The ABS I made my guide out of was much softer and has a nice bend to it. Which makes it really good for drawing the guide lines as you can press it down on the pieces better. This shamefully took me over an hour for 2 strips, I kept trying to think of cool ways to do it better. But gave up and sanded to pencil marks in the end. If someone has a better approach I am open to it. Well that took longer to write up than I anticipated. Will post my bicep trimming guide later ... tonight possibly. Teaser bicep results