TKheehaw

Looking at the vast amount of screen clips from ANH, it seems approx 3 out of 5 troopers have the rear of the calf cut down. So here's the result. Finally got around to sticking the hand guards on the gloves and had less than great luck with the flexible one's Did not like the crack when the guards were flexed in the paint. So I velcroed the solid plastics to an extra set of gloves. Will use the solid plastic for basic 510st submission, but will change them out when flexible ones from Sonnenschein arrive.

Never noticed the rear calf trimming until you guys mentioned it.... That would give a little bit more room when the leg is flexed during a walking stride.... Looks like a job for the Kobalt exacto knife Thanks guys!

Has anyone tried this stuff to paint hand guards??? Its a spray that has something like a screen printing paint in it... Thought the stuff was OK, but not great. Had some flexability and cracked some when bent the guard around. Should work OK for trooping.

Now that photobucket is cooperating.... Here is the corrected strip width.

Photobucket an I are not getting along this morning to post some correction pics. Remeasured the back greave strips and they were (past tense) 1.5". They are now 1". Good eye guys and thanks so much for helping out!

Rear cover strips are 1" or 25.4mm. I will double check this evening. Its possible that I was thinking 1" and cut something wider. If I did cut them too wide, will get the knife out.

After everything dried I had time to gather everything, and do the first "fitting". A few things had to be adjusted... The ab plate was a bit high so the strap bottons were moved up. Also brought the heat gun back out to adjust the bend in the shoulder straps to prevent the chest plate from riding too high (mentioned in post #44). Also the thighs kept creeping down lower and left too much of a gap. Removed the garter to thigh straps, shortened, and double their thickness to decrease the thigh plate downward creep. Worked great after that. Wish I would have taken pics for illustration purposes of all this.Will have full armor pics fairly soon. In the mean time, had a little fun with 2 of the finished helmets. Dropped off my girl at school with both of us wearing our buckets. A teacher that is a SW fan got a big kick out of it and a little boy nearly climbed in our vehicle he was so excited. Neadless to say that started her day off great. BTW there was a primary driver, peripheral vision isn't really too good in a white bucket. With kids, safety is always primary. Note to Walt, will start a build thread for the TK kid's suit soon.

This part got a bit testy.... The ATA ABS paste was very easy to make with a neat acetone.... applying it to such nice and shiny armor wasn't something I felt comfortable with... Needed a bit more room in the Ab/kidney plate area, so I shimed it 1/2" and attemping to hide the seem with some paste. Will be taking great care in sanding in decending grits to a wet sand then some Novaris #2 to get teh shine back.

This is a earlier pic of the harness. Have more recently added straps to hold up the L/R thighs. This one was not meant to be a TK selfie... My wife works a lot on the w/e so I'm my own camera man.

The left bicep shape seemed to flattened, so the heat gun was warmed up for some molecular chain manipulation. Also added the bicep strap hook and an additional snap to attach the forearm piece.

Finished up the greaves and decided to go with velcro till it becomes an annoyance then the switch will be to the loop and hook method. Walked around in them for a while to get a feel for them. Probably will not neet any padding on the inside due to the snap button on the front strap on the TK boot. Still very impressed with TKboots and how comfortable they are.

Almost Finished!!!!! wooohooo! OK, Here's a quick pic of the TD with the extra fuzzy velcro.

The revised drop boxes were installed and here is the outcome. Also got some time to work on a initial test fit for the upper portion, minus the forearms and gloves. The breast plate seemed to ride a bit high, but I assume the ab plate will pull everything down a few inches. As usual any comments welcome.

Finished up the painting on the bucket along with the right side frown tappering. Here's the pics... The tear, trap, and tube stripes were painted by help of Trooperbay stencils which worked out great. In the back shot of the helmet you'll probably notice that the S-trim came up alittle short. I may have cut too much, but the helmet goes on better. I'll fit a spare peice of S-trim before 501st submission. Still attempting to find a good way of padding the helmets. Tried knee pad inserts and if my head was just a bit smaller that would be the way to go. I used a construction helmet inside rig from trooper bay on the 1st helmet and it seemed a bit on the small side. So it looks like the plain jane foam padding may be the next logical choice. Some felt material was spray glued on a foam sheet this morning and will probably be put in sometime over the weekend. These helmet builds are about as fun, or more fun, than early model muscle car models builds. Very seriously looking at a TM or MTK helmet later on in the year. ATA is excellent quality and workmanship, but I'd like to try my hands with another for the fun of it.

Right side frown, Will do! The right side is a bit too rounded. The gap in the inner drop boxes bugged me for some reason. I know it will most likely never be seen, but I know its there. Would the gap hinder any future submissions? OR if I do go ahead and past the gap, sand, and smooth would it still be Centerion worthy? Maybe I should just let it be....

The dreaded ears went on very well and had smaller gaps than the last helmet. Using a 80 grit sponge sanding block allowed to get a good curve shape to sand with. Still room for improvement, but happy with the outcome.

Note from post #38. Had to paint the tears by hand because using the old sticker extras was impossible to lay down and not have jagged edges.

Painted the teeth and the vicoder... Had ordered some "traps and Tears" stickers for the first ATA helmet so those were used as templates to get a good outside edge. Had to clean up the edges a bit, but they turned out good.

Off on a tangent note, started back on the helmet for this build. The lens support was done the same way as the previous helmet. http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/24147-new-ata-helmet-build-and-lessons-learned/page-2#entry334945 Nothing really new and exciting to show on this step, so I'll skip putting up pick of this. Painted all the ears at the same time (kids helmet build also). Here are a few pics from that.

Ok I think I got the drop box issue corrected. Following Germain's tutorial, I made some frames out of some scrap ATA plastic and cut a larger peice for a back cover. After cutting the back down to size, the best I could.... The backs were glued to the frame and that was glued to the inside of the drop box and clamped. I'm not that happy with the gap that I left... Will this be an issue with an Expert or Cent. submission later on??? This is a part that will not be seen, but its still there. Should I take some ATA ABS paste and fill the gaps in and sand down?

This may open up a can of worms, but the tube stripes are the Hombrol #15 not the # 14 French Blue. Anyone thinking about commenting, please hold your horses for a sec. In the screen shots I took from ANH on DVD, it looks as if the tube stripes are a different color than the ab bottons. This may be a variation in lighting, camera angle, personal perception, or what ever. To tell you the truth... I like the darker color for the tube stripes. I also understand that the new requirements state the French blue should be used for the stripes. I've started a new ATA helmet that I hope to submit for Expert or Cent. some time this year. This one will be all paint and NO stickers. Even though they were easy to install (thanks trooper bay). The stencils have already arrived and some Testor's French Blue is in house. As usual any and all comments are welcome. Thanks to everyone's help and input in this helmet! Can't wait for the next one!!!!!!! Maybe a TM in the future.. Who knows.... :

Referencing the first pic I posted, it shows the glued in clips for the hard hat helmet band. These were zap a gapped in and didn't flinch when I put pressure on them to clip the band in. This method worked great for the MOT helmet, but I suspect that MOT is slightly larger. The fit was too snug and forward for the ATA helmet. May just have to clip the band out and replace w/ foam. Added the bottom trim and the final product is below.

A new toy arrived in the meantime and it proved handy to even out the edges of each lenes. And the install... Not the most symmetrical but it does just fine.

All the supports were glued in and then drilled. Below are pics of how that happened. As to insure that the drill didn't come through, a mark to gauge the depth.

OK... Got back to finishing up on the bucket. Some big brown box got me distracted.... Been mulling over the way to put the lens in. MTK's tutorial has a single piece over both eyes, but most others had 2 pieces with a bend in each. I have the one piece in my MOT helmet and it works great and is easy to install, but wanted to spiffy things up with the first ATA helmet. Below is the supports for the 2 lenses.