8BitBry

Just want to throw my 2 credits in here and say Jim is really awesome. I've only dealt with him on one transaction for the aker, icomm and wireless memorex. I had a problem with the memorex receiver not powering on via batter and let him know. He responded within 24 hours and shipped out a new one free of any charge a couple days after Christmas. I don't know what my experience is worth to other troopers but from what I can tell Jim is a standup dude that cares a lot about his customers.

Still in a holding pattern on legs, doing inner shims and making snap plates when I can (tough with a full-time job, 2yo and a pregnant wife ). Awaiting some AP ABS to replace the off-color cover strips I put on/took off of the shins. Going slower than I would like but I'm quickly learning by a couple fails here and there on insignificant stuff. Before this project, the only thing I've ever used and used well was an exacto knife. Most of my work has been and is digital as I have worked exclusively in Photoshop going on 17 years now. In the meantime I'm rolling with the bucket and doing a few details here and there, throwing in fans and trying to find a place for the wireless memorex. I took on the advice of Glen to pretty up the hack of a paint job I did on the ear stripe. I masked around the area first so I didn't accidentally sand where I didn't want to. Then sanded with fine sand paper. This Humbrol paint is thick and gooey so it gets everywhere if you're not careful. Removed masking tape and polished the small sanded area with some Novus. It's no pinstripe tape but it'll do the job and fit in when I get around to applying the Dave M decals later on.

Agreed. Also it's just a single tan strap riveted to the holster and 2 onto the belt for Stunt, correct? Not a loop?

This. I've read some have used heat to bring the wings a little closer into the shin.

Thanks for this tip, Glen. I'll definitely be giving this a go for the plates I'm working on now.

Thanks Vern. I'm following your snap plate tutorial and it's going well. http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/20396-snap-plate-help/page__hl__%20vern%20%20snaps Only problem I ran into was buying an extra set of snaps that had more of that saucer ridge. Decided to try them even with after dremeling a concave funnel to get it flush, the post would still bend under pressure. Just bought more of the ones that worked so 7 successes so far lol

Thanks for the replies boys! I'm going to swap out the straps for tan ones out of personal preference.

Do the holster straps need to be changed for Centurion? I notice they're ESB black, not ANH tan. EDIT: nevermind, see my thread http://www.whitearmo...ter-loop-color/

Yah, I'm definitely more fond of the snaps/fabric.

I'm curious to hear opinions of what works best for comfort and trooping. I found Karin's thread about how to make the wire brackets (http://www.whitearmo...l__ screw loop) but snaps seem way easier and reliable. Is there a preference down the road to Centurion? Thanks in advance!

Enough to redo cover strips on legs and shim the sides. PM sent!

Thanks Barry. I used E6K for this reason. I'll contact AP for some extra sheets to replace what I have started on my shins.

I have an AP kit and ordered some extra ABS from Trooperbay - couldn't wait for extra ABS to ship from Canada. I'm just using it for cover strips on the legs, side shims and snap plates. I'd like to try and match the white of the AP armor, Trooperbay's is decent quality but it's more off-white. This photo doesn't show the best lighting but the strip is slightly more magenta-ish. Anyone have any recommendations for abs paint on the cover strips to match the AP color? Thanks!

Would love them! I'll take them with the TD clips you're making. Let me know how much I owe when you're ready to ship! Thanks Vern!

I bought a holster that came with my AP ANH stunt armor that's all black including the loops. Didn't know it would be all black, or maybe I forgot to check. I noticed most people have the black holster and tan leather loops secured to the belt. Is there a correct version for EIB and centurion? Should I change out the loops from black to tan?

Good points, I'll E6000 it and align/conform to the top mold of the shin. Thanks for everyone's replies.

Good tip! I'll try that first and see how it goes. Did you heat the outside while you were wearing it? I'm not sure how to form that natural bow my calves have without heating/pulling while wearing it. I can't imagine it'd be unbearably hot if I don't overdo it, right? Edit: obviously I would just use my best judgement and stop heating an area if it gets too hot before it has any potential to burn.

Here's the separation with shim in place on the left shin. The top got a little wonky after the sniper plate pull. The original cover strip was fubar after the strip pull so I heated/straightened it and used zap-a-gap to make it a 20mm shim. Cut some 25mm abs strips from Trooperbay for cover strips. Sanded a side of the strip and did my best to sand/get rid of the previously existing abs glue on the shin. I used E6000 for the new strips. They're a little different in color, more off-white. I'm wondering if there is a good color match for AP armor? Haven't looked into it since I'm not concerned with that detail just yet. Here's the new gap in the back. It was close to around 15mm at its largest - now it's just under a manageable 10mm. I was thinking about how to go about the hook and loop to get them on/off. I saw this link but I'm not too fond of the look: http://www.tonybarne....com/shims.html I'm going for a matching 25mm cover strip on the back that's glued to the left side of the calf and hook/loop velcro on the opposite side. We'll see how that goes. If it looks good I'll move onto the right shin.

Thanks Charles. Yours looks exactly like how I imagined mine to be placed - I don't think it looks bad when it's placed on my shin, it does however look weird and crooked on its own. It has character imo.

Thanks Glen. Should I just fine-sand the paint away and polish the little sanded area after? I haven't tried it yet and want to make sure it's the right way to go about fixing paint problems like this. Thanks!

Oh man, please - whatever you do - do not order pre-assembled kits, especially AP kits. Learn from my mistake. If you've made this mistake you can try what I've been doing or if you just want to sit back and that's cool too. I thought having everything put together for me, ready to modify, it would make the process faster and easier where I might be able to make less mistakes. Turns out not knowing exactly what I was getting ended up hurting more with the knowledge I've gained from this wonderful whitearmor resource for what I ultimately want to do. I got the boxes from AP the other day and was super stoked followed by a FML as I went through the already assembled parts. I'm 5'11 and a filled out 200lbs, meaning I'm not a toothpick and not exactly flabby. Anyways, I dived in and found that everything is velcroed and all the cover strips are 20mm. Mark also uses abs glue so the residue is pretty crazy. I carefully used a heat gun to remove the strips and separate the halves. Resized the arm strips to 15mm. I resized, cut undeeded ridges, sanded edges and residue, resized some more, rounded off the cover strip corners and glued them back on with zap-a-gap (I tried the accelerator and it's basically if you want something to hold instantly if you don't have the patience to wait 10 min). Ended up getting a really nice snug fit for the biceps and forearms that's actually pretty comfortable. These were the easy modifications to make. Other things to note on the pre-assembled build: neck trim is wrong (not "s trim"), the face plate was drilled slightly crooked in relation to the cap and ear tabs weren't aligned to my liking so I had to fix all that. I just installed the Trooperbay frown mesh and hard hat liner. As a result I had to pull apart the upgraded darker lenses, trim out a nose section and shave about 10mm off the top for the hard hat tab hooks I E6000'd to the inside of the bucket. Really happy with how that came out and fits awesome. Mike has a great instructional video on how to install it here: Painted ear trim and added rank bar paint. It looks like it came out a bit thick, I'm not sure. Weird shadow cast on the left bump. Opinions on the paint job are welcome. So in the few days I've had the kit that's what I've done so far. I'm on the shins right now: fixing, resizing and adjusting for 25mm cover strips. I'm going to have to shim the thighs somehow too. I have to officially size them but it looks like I'll have about a 20mm gap at the top in the back. I'm sure I'll be posting a question or two hoping for answers.

I agree, thanks Jeroen. Did you end up trimming the top of the shin to get it to visually align properly with the plate or did you leave the shin alone?

Disclaimer #1: Noob here, I ordered a "ready-to-modify" kit from AP. Disclaimer #2: I have beefy calves. Disclaimer #3: I had to take the shin apart and reassemble with a shim at the front and a 25mm cover strip for sizing. So everything's pretty good with sizing now and I'm trying to reattach the sniper plate. The placement sucked to begin with so I'm trying to fix it. The problem I have is that with the alignment of the plate - it flairs to my "stage left" slightly. I'm wondering if this is a defect or if this is normal placement. It feels like it's wrong or could be tweaked slightly to straighten up a bit. Thoughts?

Bump for metal love - I have abs plastic clips that are looking for the trash can. Can anyone help? Thanks!

Nice congrats!