DroidHunter

Clamps, magnets and blue painter's tape go hand in hand with Erin to help during the curing period. Try to leave it alone for 24 hours as the one time I got anxious is the only time my piece did not adhere correctly.

Yes. Home Depot, Lowes, Michaels and most hobby stores carry it. I grab mine at Michael's with their 40% or 50% off coupons. E6000 works great with ABS. Be sure to sand the areas lightly and then clean/dry before gluing to help with the bond. Fear not. E6000 is very forgiving.

Thanks guys. I should have submission pics up within the week as I have finished my build, preliminarily anyway. Until I have the funds to update my blaster, I'll have to hold off on EIB status even though I built with that in mind. I still have to make the tweeks Gaz suggested earlier in my thread. But initial basic approval pics are on the way. As for the thigh harness, I ended up adding a pair of suspenders to counter-balance the pull from the thighs and it made a HUGE difference in having a secure fit. There is still some give as the straps, belt and suspenders are all elastic, but those thighs are not going anywhere!

Sorry for a silly question, but electronics are not my area of strength. I need a fan that I can run off of a 9v connection due to space limitations in my ATA bucket. I had a 5v fan that I hooked up to a 4xAA battery pack and it ran great. But, I could not fit the battery pack in my helmet. So, like a dope, I tried it with a 9v and burned up the fan. Back to the drawing board. I need to order a blower fan (which all seem to come from China...) and I need to decide on 5v versus 12v. Any guidance would be great. And I again apologize for my ignorance in this area.

That's a great feeling! Good for you. I just "finished" my ATA build and will be sending submission photos in this weekend. Looking foreward to seeing your progress.

That's one of my many concerns. I'll be fully done with my build this week and I'm heading out to squire on the 21st. The vets in my garrison told me to bring my gear so we can do my submission shots while I'm there. I'm curious to see how everything either comes together or falls apart when I suit up away from home.

You're not kidding! Who would have thought that finding plain black would be difficult?

I grabbed some champion compression stuff at Target when they had a sale. Good quality, decent price. Not sure if you can get it in the Summer though...

Does anybody know why every Disney theme park carries this in stock, but you can't get one in a store or from Disney online? I was at Disney back in February and saw this in all of the theme parks, in Downtown Disney, and in the gift shop at our hotel, but cannot find one anywhere else. Blasted luggage was too full to bring one home....

Ugh....

Had to take a short break, but now I'm back. I should wrap up my build this week, or next week at the latest. The biggest thing I had left to tackle was the thigh strapping dllemma. I had ideas for how to appoach it, but wasn't positive until I was walking through Dick's Sporting Goods and found a baseball belt. Its made of fairly rigid elastic that doesn't give too easily, it has a strap adjuster and a buckle. That way you can make it good and tight. Next I took some 3 inch strapping and sewed the ends over into loops. The loops just slip over the belt and drop down into the thighs. My thigh snap plates are setting up now so I should be able to get these measured out and fitted by tomorrow. Total cost of the strapping system was less than $15. I can add some plastic support strips, but so far, the belt doesn't seem to need it between the heavier quality of the belt elastic and the width of the leg straps.

Welcome to the FISD! You have come to the right place if you want to be a trooper. There are lots of people here who have been doing this for a long time,and will be happy to guide you along the way. That being said, there is plenty of research to do right here on these boards. The questions you have asked have been asked by many others over time. Start here: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/11538-the-various-types-of-armor-and-where-to-find-them/ This is a listing of the vetted TK sellers around the globe. I strongly recommend you stick with this list rather than trying to find armor somewhere else. IMHO, avoid Ebay! In the link above you will see some recommendations regarding size. At 5'6" you should probably stick with any of the "screen-sized" suits (e.g. TM, MTK, ATA, AP, etc.) I'll let some of the more experienced troopers weigh in on this more. As for all of the other stuff (neck seal, under suits, holster, belt, etc.) you can either try to build some, or there are people here from whom you can purchase that stuff. You will eventually have access to the saled threads where most of us make those purchases. Do some research and decide which kit you want. After that, things will start to make more sense. And good luck.

Any of the screen sized kits should fit you just fine. Its really a matter of wait list time and price that will help make your decision for you. Look at the list of vetted sellers again and stick with the standard sized suits (e.g. you won't want RT-Mod as that is made for larger troopers). As with Josh, I am finishing up my ATA kit and I measure in at about 5'10" and 175 lbs. So far, it has been a great kit to build.

I'm 5'10" and weigh between 175 and 180 depending. The ATA fits me well. As far as your height, that is a non-issue -- ATA will fit you just fine. As far as weight is concerned, you should be close to fitting or you may need some slight shimming on the sides. My waist is probably a size 34, though that is never an accurate measurement in inches. The ab/kidney plates fits snuggly front to back, but there is some room on the sides. I'll try to get an actual measurement of my stomach area with a flexible tape measure to give you an idea of fit.

Thanks for posting. That's about the only step I have left, and I am going to do something similar, but with snaps in the thigh instead of glue.

Getting very close. Mostly just strapping and checking fit right now. Here's a quick shot after strapping on my shoulders. The chest looks askew, but its just the way I was standing. It actually sits quite straight. I have a two position strap for the shoulders, so I can pull them up about an inch if necessary. At this point, I have to do the thigh strapping (still debating on thigh garter versus snap to ab plate), add padding to the ridiculous ATA forearms, and put a fan in the bucket. Hopefully I'll be ready for some submission photos next week. Celebrating 10 years of married life this weekend so I have to put it away for a few days...

First, follow what Germain posted above. As far as what is required (for Centurion) by way of rivets and snaps, that covers it. 3 split rivets on the left side of the abdomen; 3 matching split rivets on the left side of the kidney plate. Use this thread for reference: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/26886-split-rivet-placement/ One split rivet in the crotch with two male snaps on the butt plate as pictured above. One male snap in the upper right corner of the abdomen. Visually, that is all that is required. The split rivets don't even need to anchor anything -- they can be ornamental if you wish. And don't forget the cap rivets on the edges of the right thigh ammo pack. As for strapping, that is a matter of choice unless you want true screen accurate strapping. In my experience, most troopers strap for fit and function, not screen accuracy, but if you want acreen accurate, there are guys here who can steer you. Look at the picture submissions on the Centurion build pages, even if you only are going EIB. You will see examples of how guys are strapping their kits. See if your local garrison has any armor parties scheduled too. As a genereal rule you will see: -ab plate and kidney strapped together with the split rivets on the left side of the torso creating the "clamshell" -butt plate strapped to kidney plate -kidney plate strapped to back -back strapped to the chest over the shoulders (white elastic) -chest strapped to the abdomen -strap under the crotch from butt plate to ab plate -shoulder strapped to chest/back strap -strap on lower shoulder around arm -strap from shoulder to bicep -strap from bicep to forearm -strap from thigh to ab plate or to a belt (i.e. a garter system) I probably missed one or two. Check out the pics in those Centurion applications here: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/forum/72-request-centurion-status/ And use this as a GUIDELINE when deciding what kind of elastic to buy: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/26477-what-we-know-about-strapping-snaps-rivets-etc/?hl=%2Bbelt+%2Brivet Does that help? If your question is how to strap, that's another story. I recommend making snap plates, but other people can chime in on that.

Chrome and Firefox work fine. When I use IE it hangs up and I have to close out of the internet. Dumb old IE.

I may have to try this sometime with may spare set of ATA ears. Very cool. I wonder if you could use an old fashioned compass that is utilized for drawing circles for this, as long as you put some tape over the needle point to avoid scratching the helmet.

will do.

Thanks Steve, I really appreciate your comments. I wasn't sure on both of those points. The knee should be an easy fix. That's partially why I dropped the rivet a little more forward rather than equi-distant from the top and side. I can trim the back edge down a little cloder to the bend point on the thigh. I looked at a lot of build threads and it looked like many people had thigh ammo packs entending beyond the anchor points. I trimmed mine back but there is still some overlap -- though less than it would appear in the pics. The ab button plate is a little trickier. Should I Dremel it down? It is mounted with E6000, so I can probably get it off, though I have never done this. Any suggestions? And not that I'm looking for an easy way out, but would either/both of these issues affect eventual EIB status? Just curious.

Falling behind on posting up here. This has to be the world's slowest build. 8 months and counting -- although the end is only a couple of weeks away. I went to an armor party a week ago and picked up some good pointers on stuff. I manged to start putting snap plates inside the body, but ran into an issue when the female snap wasn't fitting over the riveted male snap plates. I have solved the issue now, but it slowed my progress. So here are a few pics of my progress over the last week or two: Right thigh ammo pack done with cap rivets. Plastic hand guards attached to rubber gloves. I will eventually upgrade to rubber, but this will suffice for now for EIB. BTW, Loctite 2-part plastic bonding glue works great for attaching velcro to rubber! Ammo belt done. I still need to add snaps to attach the whole thing to the ab, but the rest is done. The holster is attached with chicago screws (as permitted by the CRL). Rivet covers and drop boxes also done. My snap plate solution: A little strip od styrene between overlapping elastic makes it fit great over the riveted male snaps. Makes taking them on and off easier too. More to come.....

This is the article link as posted on comicbookmovie.com: -------------

Probably not a shock, but according to CBM: