Bulldog44

Thanks. Karin and Steve. It does look way too wide for my own taste and I guess I can trim it down a bit to those recommended measurements.i tried to compare to other members here who have the RS holster and it does look wider. Thanks for your help.

I have an RS props holster and after looking at so many other holsters here on the FISD, the size of the brown straps that attach to the canvas belt look too large. I measured them across in width and they are 3 cm. is that normal or should they be slimmer in width?

Thanks Steve for that info. I just found some place in the US that makes pan head screws for antique hinges. They might be about that size I hope. Going to order some and have them shipped over. Cheers!

Thanks Andrew. I am located in Japan and they don't seem to carry slotted screws anymore. I will look into Marine shops here based on your find.and thanks for the scaled measurements. Maybe some other members will be able to confirm the screw head size as well. Thanks again.

What is the correct size screw(screw head)for attaching the metal brackets on the thermal detonator? What should the diameter of the screw head be? I know they used black slotted pan head screws according to the Bilhag reference pic. Also, aside from confirming the size, would you happen to know where I can purchase them?

E6000 is great and you have to give it time to cure. For some reason here in Japan, e6000 does not cure well in 24 hours so I wait out the whole 72 hours recommended on the label. I sometimes let it sit another day. Takes a lot of time but worth the wait and as everyone says it is forgiving and can be removed.

I will give it a try . Thanks again!

Thanks Vern. I will give that a try but need to import that since I am located in Japan. I should be able to find a similar polish if I look around.

Just going through some test fitting with my armor and noticed there are lots of scratches where the chest plate contacts the AB plate. Also where the belt rivets make contact with the AB plate. I am sure there will be more scratches with use but does anyone have any recommendations on how to reduce scratches or buff them out. I have a RS PVC kit and the scratches are quite noticeable. Hope to hear any suggestions.

I also spent some time trimming the ankle edge line on the shins. Here is how they looked before with no major trimming to the original shin halves: ANH screenshot of the ankles- front view: Reverse: From knee to ankle, my legs seem longer than the shins so removing too much will end up looking funny. On top of that, the right shin is a lot shorter than the left shin. I do not think I was able to get the same ankle line like in the screenshots but it looks much better than before. The back ankle lines are not really that good but I might take a bit more off the sides to get them to look consistent. The shin on the left in the photo above is the right shin & you can see how much shorter it is than the left shin. As always, opinions/advice welcome!

Thanks Nick. I was worried I made another permanent mistake. I am about to glue on the shoulder bridges but before I permanently fix them to the chest plate, I would like your opinions on the positioning. They are just attached with double-sided tape. As recommended from other builds and reference photos, the bridges rest on the ends of the chest plate between the 5th and 6th thin bump not counting the first big bump. If it looks correct,let me know and I will glue the down. One other question, does the entire bridge edge (up until the 5th thin bump)need to be glued to the chest plate? I saw many photos where the bridge looks glued only toward the first large bump to about the 2nd or 3rd bump and kind pops up a bit near the chest ends.Hope that makes sense.

I noticed some strange posts from an unknown member but they are gone. Did anyone else see them? I accidentally opened one of them trying to tap on another recent post. Just wondering if they could be harmful or not. Please let me know if I should be concerned. Thank you.

Thanks Maxim. Appreciate the comments and advice. I tried to research as much as possible before I got working on the belt. Your build was extremely helpful. Well documented. I will take your warning about the holster rivets and make a note before I attempt to attach that. My build skips around a bit so here is where I found myself this weekend. I wanted to get the snaps installed on the AB plate for the belt and the snap that is used to close up the kidney plate & AB plate. I started with that snap first since it seemed pretty straight forward. I worked on installing the male snap halves for attaching the belt. This was one of those things I was scared to do. I did many mock ups to see where the female snap ends on the canvas belt matched up on the AB plate. I tried to keep the position of the belt at the right height to match the screen shot TKs. I rubbed the canvas belt snap ends with a pencil to transfer the contact spots on the AB plate. After I could make out the areas of contact, I re-marked the spot and drilled one side first. My method to get the snaps in the right spot was not deadly accurate and I have mixed feelings about how it all looks when the belt is attached. Here I marked the spot to drill: Then after drilling the hole. This hole sat a bit high but it was where the belt looked best during the mock ups: After the first snap was installed I mocked up the belt again to confirm where the other snap will be installed. Already I felt I might have set the first snap too high but there was no turning back and to avoid a lopsided looking belt, I set the snap to keep it all horizontal. And here it is with the belt attached. Looks & feels a bit high but looked close to the screenshot TK belt positioning. I even tried mocking up the button plates to see where the top of the belt sits and it seems a tad high. Hopefully its okay, I can't change anything now but opinions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks Ron for the link. Gluing the snaps is a good idea and one to consider for my build. Here is the latest on my build: Worked on the belt this week. Measured and punched a hole for the center rivet. Measured and just pencil marked the side rivet placement. From edge to the mark is 10 mm. There are already dimpled hole markings but I read these are not correct for the side rivet holes. The center dimple matched my measurements for the middle ricet hole so no problems there. Just another shot of the side rivet hole markings: Measured between the snaps for my center rivet placement and punched a hole through with the rounded file. RS placed black sticker dots to show where to place the rivets. They didn't always match my measurements but were helpful in putting the belt together. After hammering in the center rivet, I drilled out the side rivet holes and pencil marked the spot to punch through on the canvas belt. All the rivets installed. Reverse side: Not sure if I did this correctly but I went with the left side(holster side) to overlap the right side when putting on the belt. (left side- velcro facing in / right side- velcro facing out.) I referred to the RS belt :

I would like to drill the holes and install the snaps on the AB plate for the belt . Could someone point me in the right direction about measurements to place these holes for the snaps?

Thank you Steve for your kind words and input. I had a lot of conflicting thoughts about which way to go with the right thigh top edge. At first I wanted to keep it true to the RS suit but at some point I decided to try to even out the top just because I thought it looked better. I was starting to get good results in forming the return edges to meet but then things started to go bad so I stopped. I couldn't reverse what I had done and so I thought if I extended the cover strip , I could then surgically trim to fit the top of the thigh. I too agree that this might be risky but I will give it a try. I plan on masking off the exposed areas with tons of tape and lots of prayers. No matter how careful I have been during this build so far I managed to scratch , nick and bend things. Since most of the arm and leg parts are now assembled with cover strips in place, I will start focusing on the belt, knee ammo pack and sniper plate. Just wondering, do the rivet covers I trimmed for the belt need to be trimmed down a bit more? Trimmed closer to the raised circle?

I re-trimmed the right thigh so the cover strip matched the rising ridge line better. It looks a lot better now. I will finalize the top end of the cover strip later. The inner left thigh half was formed extremely thin and bends without much force. Anyone else have this problem? It already bent in two places leaving unwanted crease lines along the bottom rim of the thigh. So I cut some scrap PVC to fit the inner shape of the rim and will glue it into place to add some strength to the tin walls. Hopefully this will reduce unwanted bending to the plastic and those nasty white crease lines. I will post a photo with the reinforced plastic in place once the glue sets.

Thanks Maxim for your response. I did ask RS for one and they said they would send it but it was not in the package with the snaps. Maybe Japanese Customs lost it checking the contents or RS forgot. I already asked them for so many favors I don't want to push my luck. It was my fault it broke and I will try to get one or make one if possible. I contacted Mr. No Stripes to see if he can sell me just one and I might be in luck!

Luckily today I received the S snaps to install on my armor. The male halves of the snaps were missing with the strapping kit but RS Prop Masters were extremely kind to send me some extra snaps. I hit another speed bump though with one on the wire brackets for the kidney plate. The bracket was somewhat twisted really bad and would not sit flat when installed so I tried to bend it back a bit. To my horror, it snapped in two pieces with very little force. I was wondering if anyone has an extra RS bracket they are willing to sell me. If not , is it possible that the bracket pieces can be welded back together? This sounds highly unlikely since they are so small and fragile but thought to ask anyway.

Nice job on the ears. Looks like a perfect fit. Looking forward to see the finished product.

I wouldn't worry at all. I think you made a solid choice based on what you thought is best suited for you. Negative comments can be found on just about all the armors but you did the right thing by reading up & making your choice. Armor kits in general do cost a lot and make it difficult to settle on one armor but I think you will be happy with your new kit when it comes. And if you find yourself with more cash in hand in the future, you can always take the dive and get a kit from another maker. Best of luck with your kit when it comes and have fun building it!

While waiting for some cover strips to dry I worked on trimming the rivet covers for the belt. I used a square stencil to mark & then trim the covers. I couldn't find any measurements for the exact size of the square to cut so I went with what looked close to the screenshots I was referring to. I used the 28 mm square on the stencil. The 25 mm square set it too close to the circle. I centered the raised round area as best as I could by just eyeing it. Seems centered enough and a perfect square fit. Here are all three finally cut to size.

Lesson learned: Don't glue inner strips before gluing on the cover strips! I glued on the cover strip for the right thigh finally and thought it was centered enough to limit how much of the rising ridge would be exposed on each side of the strip. Unfortunately there is about 3-4 mm too much exposed on the right side of the strip. I thought I trimmed the ridge to fit the 20 mm strip with limited room on each side but I think I need to go back and trim that 3-4 mm off. Next step, remove the inner strip, remove half of the cover strip glued to the inner thigh ridge and re-trim the the ridge.It doesn't look that bad but its one of those details I don't think I can pass over. Opinions? If anyone has any advice regarding my previous post about how the screws heads for the brackets should sit, please chime in when you can.

I was trying to install a few of the strapping brackets on the back plate tonight and wondered how the screw heads should sit. Should they be flush to the surface of the return edge or do they naturally stick out a bit? The PVC is so thin on these parts I am worried to tighten them to a flushed position. Do I need to taper the holes or drill bigger holes to get the screw heads to sit flush?

Fantastic! Walking piece of art! Great job!!!!!