sekullbe

Here's a new link: https://www.joann.com/dritz-heavy-duty-silver-snap-kit-size-24-7-pkg/2614576.html They've also got them in other colors including 'gunmetal'. 40% off online right now too, though shipping would probably eat that back up. They do have a pick up in store option, but I don't know if you'd still get the online discount. Still only a couple bucks difference in any event.

I'm not painting the dark grey tube from my NE kit at all, though this may be a mistake; gluing the plate onto the cylinder was the very first thing I did to the kit. But it looks enough like the pictures I've checked that I've moved on to much bigger and better worries

I have these prescription lens inserts bookmarked to check out but haven't looked closely yet: http://www.gogglesnmore.com/universal-glasses-insert-for-ski-goggles/ You can also get press-on lenses in some prescriptions - here's one place I've found. They're made for dive masks but may fit in TK lenses. ------------- Can't guarantee anything but may be worth a look.

I'll probably just use them as general guides for which straps I need and the approximate size then. I'm definitely not going to use the velcro- I've already made a few dozen snap "plates" with webbing and male snaps to glue inside the armor, so I'm committed to snaps.

Oh, that's a good point. Anyway, the NE kit I have came with an assortment of elastic straps so I might as well use those. They have velcro ends, but I'll probably just drive snaps through them.

This is also what was recommended to me by someone from NEG. I haven't decided which way I'm going to go yet- elastic is a little more forgiving of getting it slightly wrong, but I think strapping is best once you get the right lengths. Probably what I'll do is start with elastic and replace piecewise with webbing as I get a better idea how it wears.

I saw it too. It's probably just spam to raise some crap site's google rankings by producing lots of incoming links, which is a component in Google's ranking algorithm.

Eastbay EVAPOR tights are what was recommended before, but they changed the style so now it has white seams in front and down the legs. I imagine they can be dyed, but still annoying. The crew-neck compression shirt is still all black. Some people have reported success with Champion gear from Target, but I don't know how much of a help that is in Belgium.

OK thanks, I'll just pick whatever pops out of the scrap pile and fits. Somehow I don't see that part encountering a whole lot of scrutiny

What's your inner barrel? Just 3/4" PVC? I'm getting back to working on mine and I don't have a part for that yet.

Trello (trello.com) is a project management tool. Using it for one project with one person working is kind of overkill, but I wanted to experiment with something like that anyway It's easier to see it on their site (it's free), but the idea is that you can break down your project into "cards" that live in "lists". Each list might be some step in a process, but you can do whatever you like. The cards represent individual items of work (in a software engineering context, which this was designed for, a card would be a bugfix or a new feature, and a list might be 'unassigned', 'in progress', 'in QA', 'released', etc.). For me the lists are 'research', 'purchase', 'construct', 'trim', 'glue', 'strap', and 'complete'. Most of the cards are individual armor components like 'forearms', but I also have cards for other components like 'undersuit', 'gloves', etc. Part of the goal for me was to have a place to organize, say, everything I know about forearms. So if I see someone post "trim the NE forearm cover strip to 15mm" in a build thread. I can put it on that card where I'm sure to look when I work on forearms. I might be able to make the board public but it's got dollar costs & addresses & such that the FISD board rules like to keep sub-rosa so I haven't done it yet. I bought a small work table and as soon as it's nice again I'll be outside sanding away. There's an awesome local place that offers build space & tools for hobby projects (Artisan's Asylum, http://artisansasylum.com/) but it's costly enough that I'm not going to sign up until I can guarantee more work time than I've had lately.

I'm using a spreadsheet as well- it's tracking what I have spent and what I need to buy that I haven't yet. I also have a column for optional stuff (like an iComm) For tracking the actual build I use a 'Trello' board. Each piece of armor or step in the process has a "card" on which I add notes like the CRL description, pictures from build threads, etc. Then I can move it through the process- trim, glue, strap, etc. It works pretty well. Here's hoping I can actually get back to the silly thing; I don't have a good indoor workspace, so I've been kind of stuck during the winter without being able to do the necessary sanding/gluing.

The Death Star was small and rotating quickly. It was the Coriolis Effect, clearly. Everywhere else, TKs shot just fine.

Here are a couple of US source for lenses like that- they don't list prices though since they seem to sell only to eyecare professionals. http://www.fresnel-prism.com/products/-3m-press-on-optics/ http://www.signetarmorlite.com/lab-tech-pro/3m-products/

I'm getting back into working on my NE kit, and your pictures are a big help to me. I've had the same problems sorting out right and left in the arms, but I hope I've got it mostly settled- you can see my pics here: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/24103-scotts-ne-anh-stunt-build-thread/ . It occurs to me that if I can't tell the difference looking squarely at the parts, how much difference can there really be? You asked about snaps & belt- I've got a mix of 5/8" heavy duty snaps from Michaels and Joanns, and they seem to be compatible. Following the UKG/TK-1650 plan, it looks like ~42 are necessary. My belt is from TKittell on these forums- it's 3" which is Centurion compatible.

Looks great! I'm likely going to order some MICH pads ($20 from amazon), but those look so much cooler

I've been using curved Lexan scissors: http://www.rcplanet.com/Integy_Titanium_Nitride_Lexan_Curved_Scissor_p/intc23280.htm . I've also bought a pair of straight tin snips- I don't have a link, but they're pretty basic.

I'm working on the same kit (ever so slowly) and I'm having the same wonky issues with the tops of the biceps lining up oddly. I'm hoping they'll clean up once I trim the sides for strips, but from other threads you may end up trimming the top to shape. BBQTrooper and Redforce have some really good pictures: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/24478-bbqtrooper-anh-stunt-ne-arrmor-tk-build/?p=307919 http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/24217-ne-anh-build-wip-finally/?p=304772

This is what I bought- $8 at Joanns: http://www.joann.com/dritz-heavy-duty-silver-snap-kit-size-24-7-pkg/prd11252/ One pack like this that had the tools, and two packs without the tool. I'm still building, but they haven't given me any trouble. (I'm using 2" chunks of black nylon webbing instead of ABS plates, FWIW.) Amazon has them too.

My NE end caps are about the same. I just drilled a tiny hole about halfway down for the air pressure, and I'm gluing brackets to each end connected by a length of twine. That way even if one falls out it won't be lost.

What have I gotten myself into here... Actually it doesn't seem too difficult- just a lot of detail on each piece I need to sort out, and then putting all the bits onto the pipe using the template oughtn't be too difficult. So far for me the hardest part is figuring out just what to trim- there are a lot of parts with excess and while it's not hard to remove I'm not always certain what I should be removing. I'm hoping to provide here a picture of each piece before and after trimming- that'll help me now and hopefully anyone in the future with the same questions. I've already done some simple trimming and chopped off some of the mold plugs with a dremel cutting wheel, but there's a lot left to do and I haven't done anything non-obvious yet. I don't have any good reference photos on the trimmed, pre-assembly parts so if someone knows where I might find one I'd appreciate it. The build threads I've seen have glossed over that, so maybe all this is obvious to people with more experience than me Starting with the inner grip: The screw on the right hand side is supposed to go through a hole in the outer grip, but it can't slip on like that. I'm just going to shave it off and replace it with a real metal screw after painting. It's just a 1/4" rounded head screw, and I live near a hardware store that won't make me buy a pack of 100. (Going to do the same with all the screws including the hex ones at the muzzle.) The other side has a little lever or pin that'll need the same treatment. To trim this, I'm thinking that I want to remove basically everything above and outside of the flat edge. It doesn't really show the 3D shape in the photo, I fear. The top of it, where it's going to meet the pipe, is flat. Any better ideas how to deal with that than to put a big sanding wheel on my dremel and grind the [EWOK] out of it, until it's a nice concave shape? The magazine well: The angle makes it hard to see, but it kind of flares out where it would attach to the pipe. 2nd picture makes it more clear. I believe I'll trim flush with the box shape, on all four sides, and then gouge out the top until it's concave for the pipe. Anyone who's built one of these see where/if I'm going wrong?

On to the forearms- the're making a little more sense, I think. Right side: The elbow end lines up pretty well but the wrist end inside is 2" longer than the outside. It's not the wrong side- the left outer forearm is the same length as the right, though the left inner isn't as long as the right inner. I know I need to trim the wrist return and an inch or more of the length of the forearm. I'm also going to be trimming up to an inch along each edge- I have skinny arms. (Redforce's build is a lot like I expect mine to be). On to the left: This one doesn't have quite the length issue, but there are some shape mismatches. Again I'll be cutting off quite a bit of each component to get it down to arm size for me. Other builds have cut an arc on the elbow end of the left inside so I'm going to do that too. My understanding is that the elbow end return is optional, so I'll probably end up losing some of that to to make the circumference trim work, but I'm still going to use the elbow end as a basis- line that up then cut the wrist end until it's the length I want.

Been crazy busy over the summer but I'm back to work on this. The arms have been confusing the heck out of me. They seem to line up OK- mostly- if I just mate the edges, but that all falls apart when I start overlapping the edges like it's going to look once I start trimming. (And I'll have to do a lot of trimming- the bicep as is has 2" more diameter than my arm does, and the forearm is 1.5" too wide and 2" too long. So here's what I'm starting with. I'm pretty sure I have the correct outside bits since the curved sides line up better that way. What's the received wisdom on trimming return edges on biceps? I've seen it both ways. I may have to as part of trimming away some of the funky overlap issues- more on that soon. Here's the right bicep, taped with the edges just mated. Notice how the heights don't quite line up on the front seam, and the back seam has kind of a shape mismatch. Is that something for me to fix with trimming or bending, or am I just off base about which piece is which? Here's the left: It's got some of the same issues, except here the back is a bit high and the curve is off on the front. When I overlap to fit, the edges start to really collide or the shapes cross over. I'm thinking that I should make the bottoms line up first since they're more visible, and that all the return edges are expendable. I see very slight ones on the reference photos, but it doesn't seem to be a big deal. Here's an example of the crossover: I plan on just cutting small strips off each side of the join- maybe 1/4" on each side- then joining them flush and seeing how it fits. If I need to trim one or the other for length after one of those cuts, first I'll shave edges off the bottom to get the halves to line up, then the top gets trimmed for length. So, am I making sense? Do I even have the right pieces lined up?

Garrison armor party this weekend got me started on my trimming. I trimmed the sides of the ab, kidney, and butt plates, and a couple of inches of extra wraparound length of the cod. I'm going to leave the rest until I'm ready to strap that part, since it's pretty easy to trim. I also didn't have a good means of trimming the cod into a clean symmetrical ellipse so I'm going to print some templates in various radii and see what fits best. I was originally intending to put snaps into the supplied velcro/elastic, but one of the more experienced guys told me to use all webbing since it'll hold its size. A little harder to fit perfectly but once it's done it's done. Maybe I'll split the difference with multiple snaps where the straps are long enough. Right now I've only been building the 2" snap strips to glue inside the armor. I'm having trouble matching up the outer biceps. I've been assuming that the slighter wider end of the raised stripe is the top, but I'm not certain of that. Once I start with that though, there's only one way the curved and flat sides match. But then the heights don't quite match up; maybe they will after trimming; there's going to be a lot of that. I know there a lot of pictures of those here so I'll pore over those as a guide. Once I find a good way to illustrate my problem I'll post my own too. After trimming the sides of the back/butt and kidney I don't think I need to trim the bottom of the kidney or the top of the butt. There are about 7mm return edges there and I'm just going to butt those together and put in three webbing strips. (I'm using TK-1650's snap diagrams at least to start)

Oh yeah, forgot one tool- kevlar gloves. Fun thing to introduce to the family; "Hey, look what I just got!" *slash across palm with chef's knife* "Kevlar gloves!"