maxsteele

Thanks for this pic! I'm building a different set of armor (NE), but I was wondering how I was going to prevent my butt plate from flaring out at the sides. There is enough of an outward curve that it just wouldn't sit well on my body the way it is. If I put the snaps on the far edges of the butt plate like you have, and attach them to the edge of the kidney, the belt will push the kidney into my body, and the strap *should* pull the butt plate back into my body, getting rid of the curve. Now that I'm looking at your set-up, how are you going to do the connections between the kidney and the ab? Having the snap plate on the corner of the kidney where you do will prevent from having a strap there running from the ab to the kidney

Small work today, but a challenge for me. I cut off the excess on the shoulder straps. This was a puzzle for me because the straps have a very strong bend in them. I found that using a flexible metal ruler and some clamps did the trick in flattening out the strap and giving me a straight edge to score with an xacto knife: After scoring and snapping, and using some sandpaper to clean up the rough spots, here is a comparison of a trimmed shoulder strap to an untrimmed shoulder strap:

I've cut the bottom parts of the cod and the butt plates. For the butt plate piece, I'm not sure exactly how long this should be. I marked two lines where I think the cut should be: And I made the cut on the lower line: Should I move up more and cut at the second line? Should it be between where I cut and my second line, or is this a good length? Here is my cod piece: I'm good with this cut.

I'm liking this pad solution. Do you have any pics of the arrangement of these pads inside a helmet?

When I was shaping my ears, and had that gap like you have in the front, I picked up and set down the ear on the helmet to see which parts of the ear hit the helmet first. Those were the areas I sanded down more to get out of the way so the rest of it could sit better. In your instance, I believe the bottom part of the ear where it curves to go underneath the helmet is what is preventing the rest of the ear from sitting down more onto the helmet. You could try sanding off just a little of that bottom edge and see if the gap closes. What I think will happen is the screw at the bottom will let you sit that part down more, which will pull downward at the top, and it could start closing that gap up.

Thanks for the info Steve! I do have a concern with how the kidney plate and the ab plate fit around me. I am able to apply some pressure and get the sides of the ab and kidney to come into my body, but they will have some outward-pushing force. Obviously from the photos some tape is enough to bring the pieces in, but I wonder if I should push them against my torso in order to find where that overlap and vertical line will be. After that, I know that the two pieces will be held together by strapping and the belt. Those two pieces will want to pull away from my body, but both the strapping and the belt will be pulling them back in to my torso. Is that going to be some stress on the two pieces that I don't want to have, or is that just inevitable with TK armor? Is this something that happens basically with anyone's ab and kidney pieces? Also, when I cut the ab pieces shorter, I think there will be more of an outward resistance. But again, will the strapping and belt take care of that?

Question time! I needed to measure my waist for ordering a belt, so I'm starting to really look at the fit between my ab and kidney plates. With the assistance of my wife, I had the pieces taped together with the current ends butted against each other, and took some side shots. One thing I noticed when I did this - I had a pretty big gap between the plates and my sides. I had my wife take photos looking down at the gap, with her finger for reference on how big the gap is. The tip of her finger is poking my side: This seems to be an issue. I then bent the two pieces in to hug my body, and here you can see the overlap on the two sides: Now for questions! 1) Do I go with the fit where the sides are brought into my body and I have the overlap, or the fit where the two edges are butting against each other and I have the gaps you see? 2) If I go with the overlap fit, do I cut the extra off of the ab side or the kidney? I think it's the ab side, because the kidney has that square notch that I would have to remove. I don't think I want to do that and re-cut the square shape. 3) If I'm not cutting the kidney back more, where exactly should the kidney edges come to rest so I know where to mark on the ab side and cut? 3) When I order the belt, do I give the measurement of my waist without the armor on, or with the armor on? My waist measurement without the armor on is 39". With the armor on and no overlap, it's 43". With the armor on and the overlap where it's forming to my body, it's 41". Which measurement to give to a belt maker?

What about putting a piece of painter's tape on the side of the snap that touches the ABS? Would that be sufficient enough to keep glue away from it and keep the snap from touching the ABS itself?

Could you get some pics up of the ear held up to the helmet? We can get a better idea of what you're working with and give suggestions based on what it looks like.

Thighs have been fully joined together with inside strips: I had some trouble with the bottom ridge of the left thigh sticking out a bit more on one side. It just seems to be the way the ABS is molded. I don't think it will be an issue, but it certainly isn't flush: Here are two shots doing a fitting. I don't have anything to hold them up yet, so I just fit them up as high as they will go and snapped to attention! I believe they will be up high enough and have enough clearance at my knees. I think they're fitting pretty well! I hope the rest of you think that as well. Please keep in mind that I'm squeezing my thigh pieces together to keep them held up, which is the reason for the extra gaps at the top. Now that these are joined, next I need to put down the outer cover strips on the front / back of the shins and thighs and place the velcro down on the back of the shins. I may or may not do the velcro strip inside the bottom of the shin to attack to my boots at this time. That is certainly something that can wait until later. Then I think I'll get the sniper plate and battery pack attached.

I have glued the fronts of the thighs in place with an inside strip.

A toothpick dipped in paint thinner works well for cleaning up those little paint spill-overs. I'm not sure the type of material your helmet is made out of, so I would suggest testing this method out on a spare piece of your helmet from when you were trimming it. Put some paint on it, let it dry, then use the toothpick / thinner to remove some of the paint and see if it causes any marks or other issues on the plastic.

This is the right shin. I had said that in the first sentence. You can see the bigger curve of the piece on the "right" side of the shin, which when flipped around and worn would be the inside (left) side of my right shin. Here's a shot of me wearing my shins so you can see that it's the right one: And here's a top angle shot where you can barely see the misalignment on the right shin: Maybe I'm just being too much of a perfectionist and it is fine to leave it how it is? But look at how great of an alignment I got on the left shin! It's a shame that will get covered up by the sniper plate!

I did not use inner strips on my biceps or forearms. Once they were glued together with the outer strips, they both became very solid. I am using inner strips for the fronts of my shins and thighs, because those take a lot more stress than the biceps and forearms do. Biceps / Forearms just kind of hang on your arms and you're not doing much bending and flexing with them. Thighs and shins are constantly moving and getting your legs pushing on them as you're walking around.

My right shin is misaligned at the top from slippage with a clamp while drying. I would like to take the shin pieces apart from the inner strip I glued them to. What is the appropriate method to detach the shin pieces from the cover strip without damaging the shin pieces? Also, I love how easy e6000 rubs / peels off of the surface of the armor. Sanding doesn't seem to be the method to remove e6000. Should I rub / peel off all of the e6000 from all surfaces before attempting the re-glue?

Thanks for the tips Martin! I know that e6000 lets us re-do gluing, I just hate to start over on something again. I think I might do that with the right shin though so I can get the top lined up nicely. As for the shoulders/biceps/forearms pic, this was just a *very* rough fit on my body. I had the shoulders held in place by two strips of painter's tape draped behind my neck. The biceps were held in place by one strip of tape in the back, and the forearms were just slipped on and held in place by bending my arms. I wanted to get some type of idea how these pieces will even look on my body when finished.

I took some very preliminary fitting pics for my shoulders, biceps, and forearms. I held the shoulders around my neck in place with strips of tape behind my neck, a strip of tape in the back on each side to hold the biceps to the shoulders, and slipped on my forearms.

I finished joining the fronts of my shins together with the inside strip. No outer finishing strip yet. First, I want to show a pic of the fit: Second, I sealed up the backs with tape, and seated them onto my boots. This is what they look like before I start walking around: And this is what they look like after I paced back and forth about 50 steps or so: One time, I even had the right shin pop up above my boot. So - questions: 1) Do I have these shins fitted correctly? 2) How do I stop the shins from rotating the way they're rotating when I walk? 3) How can I prevent a shin (or both shins) from popping up above my boot? I'm hoping I didn't cut too close down at the bottom where the shin wraps around the boot, making the fit too tight down there. If I did, I'm not sure what to do about that....

My right shin has been sealed in the front! I did the inside strip first. Yes, the top shifted slightly in the clamping process. Shame it wasn't the left one, huh? I'm going to put the cover strip down like so: That should help with it. I also got the first part of the inside strip glued down on the left shin. I'm sealing that one up tonight.

Your right forearm is twisted. The pattern should be lined up with the top of your hand, not on the side. The left forearm might be a little twisted also. The way you have your arms in the second pic - you should see the cover strip on each forearm lining up with the cover strip on each bicep. The pattern on the forearms should be facing outward so you would see them from the same pose but at a sideways angle. And to repeat from others - you will need to get a new helmet as that style is no longer approved for the 501st.

Gluing one half of inner strip on a shin:

I did not use inner strips on the biceps, and they are quite solid. I did not use an inner strip on the right forearm, and I used an inner strip on the left because I was having difficulty getting resistance pushing back from the other side to get the piece fully glued. It sounds like I should use inner strips on both the shins and thighs for durability reasons. I shall do so! Jason - interesting you did the outer strips first to stabilize the piece, then the inner strips afterward. That's not how I would have expected to do it, but I can certainly give it a try!

When I glue the shins together, should I use an inner strip on the front part in addition to the outer cover strip? My concern is the "hinge" nature of the shins putting them on and taking them off, and I'm wondering if having the inner strip will make them more durable to that bending action than just having an outer strip holding the two halves together in the front? I would be fine with just using the outer finishing strip as the part that holds the two pieces together, but wanted to find out if it's optional for the inner strip, or if I really should use an inner strip? Also, if I do use an inner strip, what order should I glue? Should I glue one side of the inner strip, then glue the other side so the piece is effectively "together", and then lay the outer finishing strip on top of the seam and glue it all down at once? Or should I glue one side of the inner strip, then on the other side do one half of the outer strip, then bring it all together and glue the second part of the inner strip at the same time as the second part of the outer strip?

Here are some shots of my finished forearms while wearing my undershirt and gloves:

Second forearm has been glued! Using the combination of tape, elastic strapping, and magnets, I was able to seal the whole piece up nicely with e6000. Question - when I glue the shins together, should I use an inner strip on the front part in addition to the outer cover strip? My concern is the "hinge" nature of the shins putting them on and taking them off, and I'm wondering if having the inner strip will make them more durable to that bending action than just having an outer strip holding the two halves together in the front.