maxsteele

Thanks guys for the encouraging words! I ordered a set of 20 3/4 in x 1/8 in n50 magnets that will arrive tomorrow. Once I get those, I plan on moving through the gluing of my second forearm, shins, and thighs within the next week or so, then figuring out the best way to handle the shin closings. I already have the velcro for it, but I need to see what's going to work best for me. After that it will be working on smaller parts like the ammo pouch and sniper plate around the legs, getting a cloth belt and attaching those pieces, do some final trimming on the body pieces, and then working out a good snap / strap system to pull it all together.

I did it! I overcame my gap issue on my forearm! I decided to stick with e6000 and employ a new method for getting the gap closed. First, I scraped out all of the old, dried krazy glue that had accumulated. Next, I filled up a small infant medicine syringe with e6000, and I squeezed the glue into the gap. I then used a cuticle stick to push the glue in as much as I could. I gave the outer area a wipe for the excess glue, then I squeezed down the cover strip and tightly pulled blue tape strips across it to hold it down. The tape didn't completely compress the gap. Next, I used the elastic bands that came with the NE armor, that I am not going to use, and I wrapped two around the forearm, pulled them as tight as I could, and tied them off. FInally, I placed my 1/2" magnets in a row on top of the elastic, for a final compression. 24 hours later, and here's the result: This is a very close-up shot, so it looks really messy, but from a normal viewing distance, you can't see it. The gap is now more cosmetic than structural, and I'm happy with it. Here are some shots of my finished right forearm: You can see in this last shot the marks that the krazy glue made on the armor itself. Fortunately, they only show up in bright light, and this part of the armor is on the back side of the piece up next to the elbow. I don't think I'm going to have an issue with that at all.

I got the Bass Amsterdam boots and painted them white. http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/25062-maxsteeles-bass-amsterdam-tk-conversion/ Official word is they will pass for basic approval, most likely pass for EIB, but not for Centurion.

For my other forearm that doesn't have the final connection glued, I'm going to glue in an inner cover strip. I haven't used inner cover strips, and I wonder if I put one in, it will give me the surface area to give the magnets something to push against and close the gap on the outer cover strip when I glue the inner and outer strip to the two pieces for closing the forearm up. Worst case scenario for this is it doesn't work and I tear out the inner cover strip, since I'm going to use e6000 for this step.

Yeah, I'll try that. I guess this krazy glue wasn't strong enough. I'll pick up some ca glue and zip kicker. Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

Well, trying to close that gap went as well as expected. Here is how I attempted to close the gap: And here is the result after 8 hours: I had some painter's tape get stuck to the arm piece, which I had to scrape off with my xacto blade. Damage could have been much worse, but I think it's salvageable. Here are a couple of different angles so you can get an idea of how the gap looks: You can see from this last image that the location of the gap is the cover strip that is on the backside of the arm piece, closer to the elbow. Here I am bending my arm upward and looking down at it. You can see the slight outward curve where the finishing strip is separating from the armor piece. I am not sure how I can solve this. I can't seem to get enough force to push the forearm piece upward and the finishing strip downward making a tight seal between the two of them. I also know I'm going to have the same issue with the other forearm. This is really stalling my build.

After several weeks of having some hand surgery, I have started back on my build. I started gluing the last connection for my right forearm. With the resistance on the pieces, I put the e6000 glue down, used c-clamps on the edges, then I used tape to push down the finishing strip around the forearm, then magnets to push down. After 24 hours, 2/3 of the finishing strip glued down nicely and connected the two pieces together. 1/3 of the strip didn't make it and there is a pretty big gap. Since I have nothing else really to use for clamping down (the clamps I have won't reach into where the gap is), I have tried to put some krazy glue into the gap, then I c-clamped the corner again, re-taped it down for some downward force, and put magnets on top. I'm going to leave it like that for several hours, and see what it looks like. I'm not sure what I'm going to do if this doesn't close up that gap. I'll take some pics after I take the tape off to show what the gap looks like.

Also, no return edges on the wrist end of the forearms at all.

All of the above pics from this post say that you moved or deleted the pics from photobucket...

Oh yes, you can open those teeth up much more. Here's how my teeth ended up: And here's how they came out painted:

Thanks for the background! I've been pushing my creative abilities to the limits with this whole armor build, and trimming the tops of the thighs to shape feels a little out of reach for me at the moment. If it won't cost me base approval, and I don't believe it will, I'll probably stick with the current shape and position of the thighs. Fortunately, because nothing else attaches to the tops of the thighs (with the exception of some elastic for setting up a strap system to keep the thighs up), I can come back to alter the thighs if necessary.

I tried taking as good a pic as I could myself, while flexing my legs to keep the thighs from sliding down. Here's the shot I got: That's how the thighs fit on me. Looking at this Stromtrooper line-up, it seems the height of the peak at the top of the thighs in front is both directly in-line with the legs as well as off to the side. What I'm seeing is it's a puzzle piece, where the thigh fits into the curve of the cod area. Some troopers have it straight up and down, and it leaves some more black showing. Others have it rotated a bit more to the outside, which makes it fit with the curves on the other piece. RIght now, my thighs have been trimmed to fit, and I don't think there's much more I can do to alter them on how they fit on my legs. I've also looked at a couple of other NE builds, and it seems to be in-line with how they have their thighs as well.

Yeah, I'm using the cover strip method. I've had that in mind since the beginning of the build. Where I have the tape is where my cut lines are. I just noticed in these pics that I have the thighs rotated too much to the outside. I'll take a front pic with the thighs rotated properly.

I've made the final trims to my thighs. Here's how they're fitting: There are two ridges I need to trim down at the top of the rear cut lines, where one side is a bit higher than the other. Once I make that taper, they'll be a bit more comfortable. RIght now the fit feels nice and they seem to be the right length from where they come to on the tops, and where they are above the knee at the bottoms.

Do you mean how it flares down to a point at the bottom of the side piece for the ab? If so, then yeah, NE armor certainly does that. It's just never really noticed because the belt covers it up. The lengths of the pieces from the ab and the butt that go between the legs are really long also and I'll need to trim those up. It does look though that I won't be trimming much from the side ab pieces. I'm going to need that extra to make the connection on the sides to the kidney plate. Maybe once I get the belt and cinch it up, there will be a noticeable overlap and I can trim it up then. But this test fit seems to tell me I'll need it there. We'll see when I start getting the strap system set up.

Had a fellow Trooper-to-be come over yesterday and did some initial test fitting shots. The thigh and shin pieces are shown in their final fitting arrangement. I need to do the last cuts in the back and then glue on the cover strips. Warning - tons of photos: Here are some shots holding up the thigh piece with the other pieces to see fit: Here's the fit of the left and right shins: Finally, here are shots of the thigh fitting: Those thighs are definitely pulled up as high as I can pull them up. I am 5'10", so I'm hoping that I don't have to cut any off the top. I really don't want to go down that road....

Here's the bottom return edge of the thigh - untrimmed on the left, trimmed on the right:

(mis-post, please ignore)

Derek - haha! I'm having a local trooper come over this evening to try and solve the forearm gap. For the shins, the shin piece on the right is the one I trimmed to 5mm wide. I think that'll be a good shin return edge width. Especially compared to the 10-15mm width that it was! The shin piece on the left was a comparison to show how big the return edge was before I started trimming. I trimmed the left piece down to the same width as the right one. I had started cutting to fit before I trimmed down the return edges. Hopefully tonight I can finish with the measuring and get the shins and thighs cut to fit and ready to glue. Speaking of thighs, here's another comparison shot of two sides of a thigh piece. The left piece has an untrimmed top return edge, and the right piece has been trimmed to 5mm wide:

It's time for some thigh and shin return edge trimming! Here's a comparison of two parts of one of my shins. This is how small I'm going with the return edges on the tops of my shins:

That left ear looks great! Here are my ATA ears for a comparison:----------

Well, I got those 1/2" cube n52 magnets today. First of all, I'm sending them back. They are correct when they say they have a pull strength of 29 pounds. I was scared working with these things. I don't really feel safe having these around the house. They are no joke. Second, using these insanely powerful magnets did not pull my gap in at all. Because this is the molded ridge side I'm trying to glue together, they fit right into the inside groove and don't apply the pressure where I need them to. My other magnets would have been fine if this inside ridge wasn't there. When I build my right forearm, I will start with gluing the strip down on the molded side first, and then the non-molded side to get a better ABS-to-ABS seal. Here's what it looks like using these very powerful magnets: See that ridge on the left side of the upper inside of the forearm? The same type of ridge is on the right side where the magnets are sitting, and that's why that gap cannot be closed. At this point, if I were to use heat, I would need to heat up the side on the side of the forearm that I already glued, in order to give it more of a bend and possibly make it easier to close the gap and glue the pieces together. I may have to try and get some more experienced armor builders in my local garrison involved at this point. I'm starting to feel out of my element.

I'm looking at getting two sets of these: http://www.amazon.com/Strongest-CMS-Magnetics%C2%AE-Neodymium-8-Count/dp/B008CS8MI4/ref=pd_sbs_indust_7 They're 1/2", but they're cubes, they're n52, and they have a pull force of 29lb! I'm wondering if a combination of the c-clamps on the outside, and these stronger magnets, I may be able to pull that gap in enough. It's not that there's a ton of resistance. I can push a gap down with my finger pretty well. Before pushing down with my finger: After pushing down: And that's without having much force pushing back on the other side. I think if I had some stronger magnets, it would pull that gap in and take care of my issue. I also think that using square magnets would sit in the space better than larger round ones. What do you think? EDIT: These are the round magnets, but they are 3/8", and they have 10lb of pull force, which is 4lb more than the 1/2" ones I currently own. http://www.amazon.com/CMS-Magnetics%C2%AE-Neodymium-Magnet-10-Count/dp/B00BWUUOG2/ref=sr_1_14?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1390012314&sr=1-14&keywords=3%2F4%22+magnet I'm wondering if I should go with the 3/4" round, or the 1/2" cube.... EDIT #2: I'm going with the 1/2" cube. I bought two sets of them. Thanks everyone for the replies!

I'm also getting suggestions for using more magnets, but the current 1/2" round magnets I"m using are stacked 3 and 3 on each end, and they're n48, so they're pretty strong. Are there other stronger magnets I could use in this setup to pull those gaps together? I'd be willing to get some more if I knew what I should get. Would maybe the square magnets work better than the circular ones? And yeah, I have a slimmer build in my arms than most people. I can fit my thumb and forefinger around my wrist. So I definitely had to trim my forearms more than an average person.

Alright, thanks guys. I may defer the heat gun method to a member of my garrison that is more comfortable using one, since I've never even seen a heat gun, let alone use one. I'll probably just continue with my build on other pieces, and the ones I come across where I have this issue again I'll save for getting heat-gunned. Terry - it is good to hear that you have had to use a heat gun a lot for armor assembly. It makes me feel like I'm not running into a problem that I shouldn't be.