EJGreen

The neck does ride up high but as Tony suggested, the bracket system tends to force the chest upwards. No matter how much I try tugging it down, it wants to ride back up there. The back does seem rather comfortable but my concern was that the back is too low.

Once again, Josh, you are da man! Seriously though, the boots are good? Worth the $118?

Yup! So far, the only source I've seen for black TK boots is Imperial Boots but I don't know how well they rate.

Thanks for the support, Tony. I'd say that I'm probably 80% of the way there. I still have to find those damn black boots and a blaster. I'm hoping that I could coax Tim into building one for me

Awesome, Newsletter! Buckets off to Tim for writing such an incredible memoir! It solidifies most of the reasons why we all do what we do here!

Now I had to finish the strapping on the shoulder bells. I used the measurements from the "what we know..." thread and attempted to make my elastic straps close to the same specs that were documented. Turns out that the elastic around the bottom of the bells was too long and I had to shorten it a bit. I copied the same specs for the elastic straps that connect the bells to the shoulder bridge and sewed on the snaps that would attach to the shoulders... Now I was anxious to put everything on for a test fitting and pose for my wife while she took a few pictures... My wife and I both agree that the black elastic straps connecting my should bells to the shoulder straps are too long as well. I could feel my shoulder bells slowly sliding down my arms but I'm pretty certain that a quick fix would be to simply fold some of the elastic over and securing it down thus making them shorter. For the sake of appearances, I posed with my bucket on (neck seal is on order)! And that's where I am at this point. I plan to continue with my belt once I've gotten the pop rivets needed to do the job and my blaster holster is also on order. Thanks for checking me out! As always, comments and beer are welcome!

Thanks to Josh (Kredal), I will soon have rivet covers for my belt. But I have a lot of photos to share of some of the most recent progress I've made with my build... I pretty much left off with the task of finishing off the shoulder bridges on the armor. With sincere thanks to Mathias (Locitus) and everyone else who chimed in on this part, I was able to finish the job as close to screen accuracy as possible. I ditched the canvas shoulder straps that I got from Trooperbay and got my hands on the more accurate white elastic. It took a lot of trial and error (and blue tape) to get the shoulders fitted in the right place but once I felt more confident about it, I went ahead and cut my elastic strips and sewed on the snaps that will attach to the shoulder bell elastic straps... You'll notice a couple of pencil marks on the elastics which is where I determined the edges of the bridges from the chest and back armor plates should go. Locitus confirmed that the elastic strap was glued down inside the chest and back plate on the left side of the armor. All I needed to do at this point was line up the pencil marks that made on the elastic strap with the edges of the chest and back shoulder plates and glue the ends down. On the right side of the armor, the elastic strap was glued down inside the back plate but held in the chest plate with a snap. Now I could've made a snap plate but then I realized that I could install the snap directly onto the chest plate and it would be covered up by the plastic shoulder bridges. I marked (on the inside of the chest) where the elastic strap would fit and marked (on the outside of the chest) where the edges of the shoulder bridge would go. That way, I knew where I could drill a hole for the snap installation and not be worried about it being seen. Here's what that looks like... And on the inside... Next, it was just a matter of adding the female snap to the right shoulder elastic strap... Once that was done, I simply glued the unsnapped end of the elastic into the back plate and the other end snaps into the chest... I did a test fit to see how it worked and those elastic straps are holding pretty strong! Now I just had to glue the plastic bridges onto the front of the chest plate. Using the correct white elastic to tie down the free-floating ends of the shoulder bridges in the back, here's what it looks like... EDIT: I will add that in order to get better adhesion of the plastic shoulder bridges to the chest plate, I folded a piece of white elastic and glued them into the ends of the bridges so the bond would be stronger. More to follow!

PM sent Josh

I'm starting to consider the work process for my belt construction and after tearing through my box of armor, there's no rivet covers to be found. I don't know if this is the way RT suits are shipped but I gotta figure out if anyone sells them. Totally bummed right now...

Thankfully, Mathias (Locitus), had this response for me... "They were never canvas. Not on the sandtroopers either. They were 45 mm white elastics. The left side was glued in on both sides (back and chest). The right side was only glued in the back and attached to the chest with a single snap." Makes sense to me. I was actually thinking about gluing down both ends of the strap on the left side. When you think about it, the left side of the torso armor is riveted shut anyway so it would seem consistent to permanently secure the shoulder elastic on the left side as well. I'm confused as to what prompted me to buy the canvas straps from Trooperbay. Is there information floating around the forums that suggest this material instead of the elastic? Doesn't matter, I was standing outside of the fabric store this morning, waiting for them to open up and I got my hands on the proper elastics to finish up the shoulder bridges on my suit.

That, my friend, is the answer I was looking for! Thanks so much!!

I appreciate the feedback but not really the question I had in mind. I'm referring to the elastic straps that connect the chest plate to the back plate, otherwise known as the internal strapping. I was curious to know what the screen accurate method is for gluing or snapping them in.

Thanks for the feedback Brandon

Still playing around with the fitting of my torso armor. Here are some recent pics that my wife took. Is it me, or does the back plate look low? The chest plate is cutting me in the throat but if I push it down too much, the back plate goes down with it. Believe it or not, I'm more concerned with the way the back looks than the front at this moment. Any feedback would be most appreciated!

I've already posted this on my build thread but can anyone tell me the screen accurate method for puthing in the shoulder bridge elastics into the suit? I'm actually using the canvas straps from Trooperbay but I can't tell by looking at the reference images how they were actually put in. I'm assuming that one end of the straps had to be snapped in order to fit the torso armor over your head.

Does anyone have any information about how the shoulder bridge elastics were put on the original suits? Pics of the RS suit show what appears to be rivets but I was told that may not be correct. I'm assuming that the straps were placed on the inside of the chest and back plate whole the shoulder bridges were glued down on the front of the chest plate. The elastic straps had to be snapped at one end, correct? How else would you put the suit on? Any details would be most appreciated.

That's exactly what I'm referring to. Well, those and the elastic/canvas strapping that goes underneath. I'm just trying to figure out how to get a good fit with just two hands to work with. It's hard trying to measure the gap between the chest plate and the back piece.

Weekends tend to be my time set aside for "armoring." I generally lack the energy and brain cells to accomplish much of anything during the work week. With yesterday being Saturday, I had plans to get my shoulders done but after posting my recent progress, I accomplished nothing. I'm having a hard time fitting my torso for the shoulder bridges. It's really hard trying to do it alone and as much as my wife tried to be a good sport, she doesn't know what to look for in terms of how things are supposed to look. I sent a couple of the pics, above, to Steve and he noted that the chest is riding too high, the back is obviously too low and I'm certain there's discussion about the number of shoulder ridges that are supposed to be glued in front but I can't find any of them. Is there an easy way of getting these shoulder bridges done without looking like an idiot along the way?

I'm watching this one too, Clamps! Awesome work thus far! I can't say that I envy the task.

I received these a couple of days ago from Trooperbay... Two canvas shoulder straps with snaps. Now, it's just a matter of determining exactly how all of this stuff was attached to the suit. I know that the snaps are used to connect the shoulder bells to the shoulder straps but I don't know if the straps, themselves were glued, riveted, or snapped into the armor.

I pretty much covered everything I managed to accomplish over the past week or so and since I have to reorder a new canvas belt (wife accidentally threw mine away!) now I have to focus my attention on the shoulder bridges. I suited up and had my wife assist me with the fitting (she owed me big time!) I'd really like some feedback on this before I do anything drastic. The back plate looks a bit "low.'

I finally received my rivets from Echo, last week, and I was able to move forward with snap riveting the thigh ammo pack to the right thigh... Looks pretty good once the rivet heads have had a couple coats of paint applied!

A while back, I ordered some stuff from Trooperbay which included my chemical gloves and latex hand guards. The hand guards come un-painted so I had to paint them with a latex fabric paint ("Tulip") brand that you can find pretty much in any fabric store. It took about 5 coats of paint to really get a nice finish on them but once they're dry, you want to sand the backs of them with 20 grit sandpaper and glue them onto the gloves using a generous amount of CA glue. Let them dry for at least 30 minutes or more before trying them on. If you're going for a screen accurate look, it's okay if there's some obvious cracking in the paint.

But wait! There's more! There's an old saying "that which you fear will eventually appear." Yup! That's a jar of ABS paste! I was hoping that I would never have to use it but as the old saying goes... Anyway, before I go into the reason behind the paste, I will tell you that this stuff is relatively easy to use. It's just as I've read in other threads, the recipe for ABS paste is cut up scraps of ABS plastic and pure acetone. Acetone is cheap and you can find it pretty much in any major drug store chain or beauty supply store. It's used primarily as nail polish remover but I would suggest that you stay away from nail polish remover as a substitute because most nail polish removers are tinted with colors that, if used, can turn your paste the same color. Pure acetone is clear (like water) and won't affect the color of the paste. I managed to find a bottle of this stuff for less than $2.00. You want to cut scraps of ABS plastic into tiny bits and pieces. Place them in a glass container--don't use plastic as the acetone will melt plastics. You want to start off by adding enough acetone to cover the scraps of plastic. The popular method is to use something like wooden chopsticks as a means to stir everything up. Again, don't use anything that will melt into your paste. I found that I needed to add more acetone (little at a time!) until I got a thin consistency that looked like melted ice cream. The process of melting the ABS plastic can take up to a little more than an hour so be patient if you need to make a batch of this stuff up. Now, you're probably wondering how I screwed things up on my suit. Well, that male snap on the abdomen plate is what happened. You see, a couple of weeks ago, I purchased a bunch of the Tandy snaps that are rumored to be much stronger than a lot of the Dritz snaps that are commonly found in fabric stores. I ended up installing the male Tandy snap into my AB plate but once it was all said and done, it didn't look right! The male Tandy snaps have a "Tandy" logo on them and their overall appearance doesn't match what we commonly see on most suits. I was happy with the way it held everything together but in terms of appearances, it was just too ugly. My plan was to use a small drill bit to "pop" the rivet on the snap, thus allowing me to remove it and install a Dritz snap. What happened was the entire snap spun around which generated a lot of heat and eventually cut a hole in the armor... Needless to say I was pissed! I cried like a little girl for nearly 30 minutes before I realized that there was no other choice to whip up a batch of ABS paste. I sanded down the edges of the hole, wrapped a small square of plastic with tape (so it wouldn't melt) as a reinforcement, and filled in the hole with paste. I let it set for nearly 36 hours before removing the tape and sanding the hardened paste down smooth. I then drilled a new hole and secured a new male snap... Here's a look from the inside... The female snap that's attached to the velcro is the Tandy snap and it's still pretty strong--even with the Dritz male snap! Now I can show you what else I've recently accomplished.

Okay, so it's been a while since I've posted any progress on my build but I'm back in business for the time being. Apparently my laptop's power source can't make up it's mind if it's going to hold out on me a little longer but I'm fully charged and ready to post some updates! I left off with the back and front of the torso armor being riveted together. I think it turned out quite well and I'm really happy about the appearance. Once the left side was riveted together, I found myself somewhat dumbfounded by the screen method used to close the right side. We all know about that single male snap that's on the upper right corner of the AB plate. Although the CRL for Centurion states that it does not have to be functional, it was used to help close the right side of the armor. There was a 1" wide strip of elastic with the female snap on the end which was glued directly onto the kidney plate. This helped keep the right side closed up. What I found perplexing was how there are 6 rivets on the left side but just a single snap on the right side. It felt like there should be something "more" on the right side to keep everything closed up. I eventually found myself in a different thread where I received a lot of valuable information about my question. Mathias was extremely helpful and basically stated that the belt helps reinforce the single snap and that there really isn't anything else required on the right side. Mathias and Gazmosis also agree that they see a lot of over-engineering in suits that really don't possess a lot of benefits. In short, the K.I.S.S method is typically the best way to go whenver possible. With that being said, I marked where the male snap should go on the AB plate, drilled my hole and fabricated my elastic strip with the female snap and glued it down inside the kidney!