maxsteele

I've researched this to death. A common conclusion amongst all my research has said to have no return edge on the wrist ends of the forearms. I have removed those. I've also seen consensus that all of the return edge should be removed on the curved inside arm pieces of the forearms at the elbow end. I have removed those as well. A majority of people said to remove all of the return edge on both pieces at the bottom of the biceps. I have removed those. I have also removed the top return edge on the outer piece of the bicep. Where I found differing opinions was what to do with the return edges on the outside forearms at the elbow end, and the top inside bicep pieces. What I'm looking for are what are people's opinions on the return edge for the outside forearm (with the dimples) at the elbow end, and the return edge of the top inside piece of the bicep (where the armpit fits). Do you like to have some return edge? Do you remove it completely? Inquiring minds (mine) want to know!

Let me speak from a pure amateur view here.... I'm not having the easiest time building my armor right now. I've had people say: "Oh, you can have that done in a couple of weeks!" But that is certainly not the case for me. I'm struggling with cutting the armor correctly, trying to learn the techniques on how to fit and trim pieces to my body, and then I'm going to have a hell of a time with the snaps / strapping once the pieces are ready to be worn. I also need to figure out how to carve the ears for my bucket (ugh, the ears) and I'm trembling at the thought of piercing holes through it. I've never been in the situation that I am right now - unfinished pieces of armor strewn about my workbench, pieces of ABS and ABS dust littered everywhere, a clutter of scissors, xacto knives, and files.... but I'm learning a bunch about how all this armor goes together, and I will get it built eventually. I'm taking my time making sure that the return edge cuts I've made are sanded nice and smooth with no weird raised edges. I spent hours filing out the teeth of my bucket to get them to just the right amount of openings. I painted a pair of black boots white over the course of a couple of weeks. If I didn't have the experience I've had from working with my armor, I would probably suggest to someone just coming into this to have someone build the armor for you. But now that I've been working with it myself, I vote for building it yourself.

I'm doing New NE, which closely follows the RS build guidelines, but is designed for larger troopers, so there will be quite a bit I need to cut away to fit to my frame.

I have taken off the return edge on the bottoms of my biceps, and on the top part on the outer piece. I've read that there should be some return edge on the inner piece, where the armpit curve is. I'm still debating whether or not I'm going to leave that there.

Next dillema - which outer bicep piece joins up with this inner bicep piece? This one: Or this one: The inner bicep piece I'm using in both pics is the right one (the one without the thumb print). I've swapped the outer bicep piece in each pic. Both of them I made sure to match up the edges with the curve in the plastic.

I've only started handling return edges on my forearms and biceps so far. From research I've done, I have taken off the bottom return edge on my biceps, and taken off the outside return edge. I have left the inside return edge near the arm pit for the biceps. For my forearms, I took off the whole return edge on the wrist side, and the inside elbow return edge. I'm contemplating taking off the outside return edge on the elbow side as well. I've seen screen grabs showing no return edge at all on the elbow side of the forearms. I don't have shots of my bicep return edge removal yet, but you can see my forearm return edge removal on my build thread: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/24804-maxsteeles-new-ne-armor-build/page-2

Thanks for the feedback! That's what I was leaning toward doing. I know that when fitting pieces to your body, the return edge definitely changes the way pieces fit, so I'm trying to take care of return edge issues before I start measuring and cutting-to-fit. I'll take care of the return edges on both biceps next.

I have taken the return edge off on the inside elbow parts of my forearms. I'm still contemplating if I want to take the return edge off of the outer elbow side of the forearms. Another question! Here is the current state of my biceps: That is the return edge on the top and bottom of this bicep. The other bicep looks pretty much the same. I am thinking I am going to take the return edge completely off from the whole top part. I am considering taking it off of the bottom as well. I've poured through over 20 build threads and most people don't even focus on the return edge, or give photos that show what they did. Thoughts?

Personally, I did not use a finisher on mine at all. You can see my finished boots here: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/25062-maxsteeles-bass-amsterdam-tk-conversion/page-2

Through more research, it seems at the very least I need to take the return edge off of the curved part of the elbow end, which is the piece that sits on the inside of my forearm. The jury is out on whether or not I should take down the other return edge on the other piece. I also think I need to take the return edge part out from where the dimples are, and take the return edge off where the finishing strip will go. Any final thoughts before I make my next un-alterable cuts to my forearms?

Holy cow! I can't believe what a difference that black paint made! Check it out: \ I was able to hide all of my cutting mistakes and all the seepage. This project is done!

Oh, your wife had it right. They're cuticle sticks. Searching for those pulls them right up. The Edge Dressing I'm looking at is all for if the soles of your boots are made of leather also, which I know these Bass Amsterdams are certainly not. Yeah, some acrylic flat paint put on with a fine brush should take care of it. I'm feeling more confident about finishing off the boots now.

OH! One of those sticks. Yeah, ok. I know what those are. Hell, I could just use a wooden BBQ skewer. For the paint on the soles, should it be acrylic, latex, oil-based? I've never done this before so I have no clue what type of paint to use. EDIT: It looks like what I want is called "Edge Dressing". I'm searching on where to get that.

Thanks guys. That sounds simple enough to do. 1) Soren, I'm not completely sure what type of item a rosewood wedge / nail cleaner is. Do you have a link to show what this is? 2) Paul, what type of paint should be used on the edge of the soles? And would I just use regular 'black'? Also, would I paint down on the sides of the soles as well to make the tops match, or just paint the tops?

Well, good news bad news. The good news is - the white covered very nicely. Both the elastic and the boot are a great shade of white. The bad news - well, I'll just show the pics: Suggestions and solutions are welcomed...

I'm at 5 coats right now and I do feel like I could stop right there. However, I find that the heavy brush strokes brought on by the very cheap brush I started the project with are getting to me a bit. I have a much higher quality brush that I used for coat 5, and I am going to apply one more coat with the same brush, hoping it will smooth out the brush strokes visible at close range. That will be it though, and then I'll be taking a razor to my tape line and hoping that not too much paint got on the tops of my soles.

Progress! I've made progress! I've removed the return edge on the wrist end of my forearm pieces. This took me about 1 1/2 hours to do properly. I kept the thickness of the molded dimple parts (the top of the two leftmost pieces), because that seemed like it should stay there. It's the first real modification I've made to my armor pieces. Now that I've broke the ice, hopefully future cuts will come a little easier. Now, for a question - Do I remove the return edge on the elbow side of my forearms? EDIT: Yes, I have poured through various threads talking about return edges and what you should and shouldn't remove. The ones I have found use language that I am not familiar with. I do not know what "remove the return at the cup part of the elbow" is referring to, so I don't know which pieces to cut off. If someone could use some red-line magic on my two photos above there to direct on what else I should cut out, that would be awesome! Also, from this photo, it looks like that 'thickness of the molded dimple parts' is cut off. I thought it would be good to keep it there so it's one uniform piece around my forearm and would like to keep it there:

I'm going the decal route for my ATA helmet. Are these the proper decals to get? http://trooperbay.com/anh-stormtooper-dave-m-helmet-decals/

Third coat

One 1/2" rare earth magnet on each side of the helmet really isn't strong enough to hold it together for any kind of screw drilling. I'll need to get a few clamps to really secure it before I do that. Maybe if I stack two magnets together on each side.... I'll try that next. Thanks for the extra pushing on filing the teeth out. With the back attached, they look really nice!

I used some magnets to hold the front and back together to get an idea of how it would all line up. How do the cuts look? Do I have enough at the bottom for connecting together? The two pieces seem to curve away from each other, but they probably get pulled together once holes are drilled.

You do the exact same thing with the brow trim as well. Fit one side of the brow trim as far back as it will go, then place the rest of the trim around the brow until you get to the other side. Leave some extra when you cut it, then work it back against the brow until the end fits into place. I'm not using glue for the brow trim either.

There is a way to put it on so you don't need to glue it. You can fit the rubber trim onto the bottom of the helmet, and then cut the trim a little longer than is needed. Once you have this piece, start pushing back on it at different spots to compress the rubber little by little, which will make room for the edge to slip down onto the trim. Once it's in place, the rubber will "bounce back", causing tension where the two ends meet. That should be enough to keep it on. Just like with cutting armor, cut a bit less from the trim than you think you need to, and then try to fit it on. If there's any bowing of the trim, then you know that you need to cut it a little shorter.

One episode of Breaking Bad later, and it's on to the second coat! While they don't show up in the photo, I am still seeing brush strokes. I expect those will start to disappear when I get more coats on. They're mostly showing up because there's still some black showing through. The bubbles still happen, but they do go away. I may even switch to a smaller brush as I get more coats on. We'll see how it goes. The elastic took a more even coat this time and took longer to soak in. Time for another episode of Breaking Bad, and then it's bed time. I'll start coat 3 tomorrow evening after work.

FIrst coat! I used a 1/2 inch fan brush, with nice even strokes. The paint tends to get micro bubbles, but I found brushing gently over them several times makes them go away. I had to soak the elastic to get an even coat, but even then it all but sucked right into it. That will change with more coats.