AsBlondeAsLuke

Thanks, Germain. Very good to know. I will do my best to shorten the front cover strip and make it as screen accurate as possible. Thank you for pointing out this detail.

Kyle arrived with the five missing RS screws and the tool we needed so we could finally add in all the snaps. Our hero. We could finally finish the strapping. My engineer had been getting a bit... ah... frustrated visualizing which little strap went where and compared the whole process to being given a couch to assemble from IKEA without a manual. "They give you all these parts and screws, but no instructions." I shrugged. "And, so you have to search out other IKEA owners online and ask them how they put their couch together." My engineer looked thoughtful: "Except they all did it a little differently." I smiled: "Look on the bright side. When you're done, you get to join their Sofa Owner's Club." Ah, but anyway, Kyle was kind enough to loan us his armor for a few days so my engineer could see a 3-D representation of the couch. Er, armor. It made a huge difference. We were able to fly through the rest of the strapping in a few, frustration-free hours. The engineer was very happy. As beloved a tradition as these build threads are, and no one loves them more than me, has anyone ever considered actually writing an armor building manual? Does one exist? Just a thought. So, we used the Dremel to sand back the shims we'd added in. We needed these because our return edge wasn't quite large enough, but we would have added them in anyway. They provide extra strength in a high stress area. Since we now had the proper tool, we added the snap to the abdomen plate. We discovered in doing fittings that the snaps were too big so we ended up adding in a second set to make it fit, but hey, it leaves room for that growth spurt I keep dreaming about. This meant I could actually put the armor on without tape. Forgive my unsnapped crotch. We weren't done with that piece yet. I looked at this picture and went: "Blegh. Chest piece is boxy." So, my answer to everything these days seems to be heat bending. And, this is the chest piece after the heat bending. And, we finished strapping up my cod. Huh. OK. Wow. That could sound strange out of context. There's a helpful little marking to show where to put the snap. And, now I've got a snap in my cod. Yeah. Not sounding any less weird. Shot of the interior strapping.

Gloves would probably be a wise idea. I did glue my fingers this week. I finally pried them apart with nail polisher remover. I thought I'd have to wave the Vulcan greeting at everyone.

The blast mark heat bended back out and husband did not fuse his fingers into a Mon Calamari hand, so we were good to move on. The "assembling knee plate" tutorial included detailed instructions on how to rivet the knee plate and the engineer thought this sounded like a fine idea. But, something was niggling at the back of my mind from the costume requirements. We went to our trusty orange binder and looked it up. There it was under level two certification: "Sniper knee plate must not have visible rivets or fasteners attaching it to the shin." Husband still wasn't convinced. "Not visible rivets could mean they need to be painted white." True. So, we checked with Kyle. "Glue." I felt bad for my engineer. He said the rivets would hold it better on my "small shin." Seriously. Not small. Buff! Anyway, we glued the sniper plate. And, ironically we had to put those clamps back on. The same ones that left the melty marks. And, as if glue already wasn't on the oogey list for day, some of it actually starting dripping down the side of the shin like thick 'ol Jabba drool. Thankfully, there was a package of cleaning wipes inches away. Turns out those wipes are awesome at getting glue off before it dries. But, you only have to be lightning fast. Like Han-Shot-First fast. Once it dries, you either scrape it off with a craft knife, sand it down, or join the Mos Eisely Police Department. Definitely a handy item to have when gluing. We moved on to the ammo pack. We loved the reference picture in the Tutorial on legs. The engineer decided to achieve this affect using a mug from our favorite coffee house. We drank the coffee first. Mmmm.... coffee. Used our curved Lexan scissors to follow the trim mark. These scissors have been awesome. Just right for trimming the RS armor. Getting a heat bend onto the ammo belt. Re-used the "half moon" rig from the chest plate to create something that would hold the thigh in place for adding the ammo belt. Modified chest rig with holding the thigh in place. Ammo belt being added into place. Finished piece.

We built all day on Sunday. This is the first chance I've had to update the thread, although husband has been gently reminding me everyday. The interest, enthusiasm and time he's given the project has been amazing. By early Saturday evening, we ran into a "roadblock" and it looked as if we couldn't go any further. Not only we were missing missing five screws on the chest brackets, but the tool we had for punching snaps was not compatible with the RS strapping. The snaps that came with our fancy kit were 3/8" and our plier kit was 5/8." We hit every store in our town and the next look for a 5/8" kit and came up empty. We texted cousin Walter, and he'd suggested an alternate tool that had worked on his armor. We found the tool at our local hardware store, (and we'd had to go out to get paint for the Scootch anyway), but the tool stubbornly refused to comply with the RS snaps. We were tired. We were frustrated. It wasn't a good frame of mind for building. We decided to call it a night. I spoke with Kyle the next morning and was updating him on everything we'd done the day before. I told him about the 3/8-5/8 issue. "We can't do any more strapping without that tool. So, we're going to order it online, and once it comes in we can finish the strapping." "Uh, Diana? I have the tool for the RS straps." "Can I borrow it?" "No. I'm going to selfishly keep it from you." Wise guy. Kyle was swinging by my side of the county later in the day anyway and said he'd drop it off. He also had spares of the screws RS hadn't sent. Whoa. While we awaited the arrival of Santa Kyle, we decided to finish up a few last pieces. We still needed to do the sniper pack and ammo belt. Shouldn't be too hard, right? Hah. So many of these tasks would probably go much faster if I was just four inches taller and thirty pounds heavier. But, few of us have a screen accurate body. So, you work with what you have and make the armor fit a real world body. "Your shin is too small and the sniper plate is too big. It's not going to fit," my engineer stared at the two pieces. "Heat bend," I said. "We just have to make it work." We found the following tutorial very helpful as worked on the shins. It is entitled: "Assembling Greaves/shins" and includes a tutorial on bending armor using a heat gun. Molding the sniper plate to fit my "too small" shins as husband refers to them. Seriously, I think they're quite buff. Not sure if there is a better way to hold on the sniper plate using something other than a clamp? On one side, the clamp left a melty mark. The engineer sort of bent it back out again, but there's definitely a little section there that looks like it took a bit of blaster fire. Was hoping I got a picture of it, and I did. This is the blasted area right after the clamp was removed and before husband started cursing and scorching his fingers trying to fix it. There was no clamp damage on the other side. More updates to come.

Great advice. Thanks. Scootch is just hanging out on his pedestal enjoying being the centerpiece of the living room. Doesn't seem inclined to go anywhere. Even though we're doing almost all of our building on the weekends due to work, (and then cramming a lot in at once), we're not planning on rushing anything. If we do, we'll just end up having to redo it again. Plus, we're having a lot of fun building the armor together.

Won't be too long until we convert your cousin to our dark and evil ways. His armor is on order. He has tried to back on the whole idea. But, I told him to at least give it a try. He's my best friend and it's been such fun working on the armor together. He's not convinced, but he's willing to try. My mentor, Kyle, stopped with his family for a bit yesterday to help on a piece of the RS strapping. His wife was commiserating with my husband on being married to folks obsessed with Star Wars. I was thinking maybe we should start a support group... "Hi. I'm Jan." "Hi Jan." "I've been the spouse of a Star Wars addict for 10 years. He says he is going to cut back, but it seems every year it something new and different. It never ends with him-" The group would be full. I think. The helmet is looking good. Thank you for your guidance. We applied four coats of primer, let it dry overnight with a fan running, and then started on the coats of gloss white. Once all the coats of paint are on, we're going to let the helmet "sit" for a week, as per the paint thread that Germain forwarded above, to let the paint settle for a while. After the coats of primer dried, prepped for the gloss coats by sanding with 600 grit sandpaper. The engineer stressed you could by feel exactly where you still needed to sand because it has a slightly rough texture under your fingertips. Once everything feels smoothy and silky under your fingertips all over, it is ready for painting. He insisted I feel this for myself. Uh... OK. Right. This isn't weird. Check it out! Scootch is a shinie.

OK, I have a helmet question, what is an "S-trim"?

Thanks, Germain. I appreciate the reference thread. I loved the way my cousin Walter's Scootch helmet came out so I am using his build thread as a reference on this one. http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/25745-tk-helmet-build-build-kit-from-scootch-by-haribon72-silicon-valleyca/?hl=+haribon72%20+scootch Walter's advice to me was: "Make sure you spray light even coats. Three coats for the primer. Allow to dry one hour between coats, and then seven coats of the gloss white." This is the white primer. We found it at our local Orchard Supply. This is the paint we will be using. Both designed just for plastic.

Time to paint the Scootch bucket. The weather is perfect for it this weekend. So, the engineer headed outside to build a rig for painting helmets. This is what he came back inside with a few minutes later. We always have spare wood around since husband likes to build things in his spare time. This rig allows the helmet to be painted from different angles and turned. Allows gives it a place to dry. I just loved it because it made my helmet look cool. We weren't sure what kind of paint and primer to use, so we texted Kyle (my mentor) and cousin Walter (Haribon72). I love this picture of husband out in the mancave with the Scootch bucket. It is like the two of them are in a deep conversation about the mysteries of life.

We moved on to the belt. Time to attach the dropboxes. Originally, we were going to make the dropboxes "functional." But, there's not really much you can put in these itty bitty little boxes. They're cute and all, but my current (rubber chemical) gloves are so clumsy I can't imagine having the dexterity to possible open those things up with my gloves on. So, we are sealing these little puppies up. Maybe I should write a little message inside of them first. Like a time capsule. The ends of the pieces of the elastic are frayed. So, we hit 'em up with a bit of flame to get rid of the fraying. This is best done outdoors. The smoke detectors can be so annoying. We decided to attach the elastic with a rivet. Sealing the boxes for all eternity. Gah. I didn't get to add my secret message. Sigh. Husband did want me to add to the build thread that you only need to put glue in the four corners of the drop boxes, and not all around. If you put glue all the way around the rectangle and then squeeze it shut, it will come out like a PB&J sandwich.

So nice having my engineer at home today. The weather was glorious and we were able to spend a sunny afternoon working both indoors and outdoors hammering out the nitty gritty final details of the build. There's not much left to do, but it seems all these little tasks are the ones taking the longest to get done. Thank you to Darth Aloha for suggesting I increase the size of the pictures in my thread. I appreciate the feedback. We added a new return edge to the bottom chest piece. The return edge was easy to create thanks to the "half moon" rig. The other essential components are the heat gun and a block of wood. For added strength, we also put little shims in where the brackets will attach. These are the most high stress areas, and most likely where you'll get cracks. Fu Fully reinforced chest piece Chest brackets look great except... RS didn't send us enough screws. We're short by five screws. We're not screwed, though, we'll just find some locally. In the meantime, we'll work on something else.

Thank you. I was very flattered to be mentioned. It meant a great deal. For anyone who is interested, here is the PhotoBucket link with rest of the "Where in the World is TK pictures?" My son was on winter break so we spent five days in the Philippines, with a stopover in Japan each way. It was a good opportunity to take some interesting pictures. I headed home to get the boy back in school, and my husband continued on to Hong Kong and China for work. He took TK with him and got more pictures. I married the right man. http://s974.photobucket.com/user/dianawolftorres/library/Where%20in%20the%20world%20is%20TK91305

I don't think I've ever been called adorable before. But, I am definitely not beyond accepting flattery. I like you already. Glad you are enjoying the build. My mighty engineer is back home again and we are resuming our team build today.

No worries, Steve. Parallax errors happen to the best of us.

Hi Germain- Thanks for the feedback. Aw, we always need help. And, trust me, we always have a lot of questions. We had one week where we did a lot of building because the engineer was home before heading into a crunch time at work. We called upon somebody in our local garrison (who also has RS) with many of our questions. We had some very specific questions about the RS strapping system. We also called upon Steve (WideAMG) who just completed a RS build. Thank you for the correction on the shins. I'll get it fixed. I appreciate the reference picture. I've gotten good at moving those hooks.

Thanks for the tips, Aaron. I'll give it a try. Ah yes, he is, but the engineer isn't available at the moment so it's just me working on the build at the moment. I was an English major, so while terms like "taper" come easily to me, I needed a full cup of coffee before being able to fully process your cryogenic turbine assembly measuring methods. I get it now. Just took me two cups of coffee, and Googling "parallax error" to get there. Ah yes. My test methods get work done around the house and the armor properly fitted. A win-win for all.

Hi Steve- Thanks for the feedback. It's 10 mm measured from the center of the rivet to the edge, not counting the return edge. Is there another way to check the measurement?

Continued on with the chest strapping. Working on the "clamshell" portion. Now that we mastered rivets, this step went smoothly. There was finally a break in the rain and the dog needed exercise. I wanted to test out the fit of my thighs and shins again. No reason the two couldn't be combined. I wasn't ready to walk the dog wearing the lower half of my armor, but I wasn't opposed to tossing the ball in the backyard suited up. It was a good beta-test. If I could bend down and pick up a tennis ball a hundred times, then my armor truly fit well with minimal chafing. My thighs passed the tennis ball test well although they had a tendency to slide. I had to hoke them up often. Definitely need the strap around my waist to be tighter. (Tried to adjust it, but received a set of muddy pawprints on my armor for my lack of attention to more important matters.) The shins failed the Imperial t-ball test. They looked clunky and rattled about when I walked. I studied shin reference pics. I wanted a nice taper. My thighs were fine, but I was losing it in the shins. I stared at my troublesome shins for a long while. They were already strapped, but there was no help for it. They'd have to come apart. Turned out to be an easier task than I thought. I was even able to carefully pry off some Zap-A-Gap to remove the strapping. I had estimated I wanted to resize them by as much as an inch, but decided I would start with half an inch. Always easier to trim more later than try to add it back in. The shin on the left has been resized and the one on the right is still unmodified. The difference might not be immediately noticeable, but there is a nicer taper to the shin. Both shins resized. Now, the tapering looks screen accurate to me. Most importantly, the shins felt right. I wore them for running loads of laundry up and down the stairs and the clunky feeling was gone. (Although, my shins did keep popping out of my boots. Wonder if the Imperial Laundry Service has this problem.) Added the strapping (hooks) back in and also velcro. The velcro is for me because the hooks were getting on my nerves. The hooks are there because husband loves his hook system. I'll tell you one thing. My shin pieces are never popping off.

In the beginning, LadyinWhite advised me to "throw up, and then get trimming." So, feeling a bit overwhelmed just makes you like everybody else.

Thanks, Todd. Appreciate the encouragement. Getting the strapping done has been a bit... ah... frustrating at times, but it's getting done.

The build went on hold for a week for winter break. Did a bit of traveling and decided to leave the Dremel at home. We'd strapped the back the day before we left, and I brilliantly managed to take almost no pictures, other than the clever little template husband designed for making the holes. I know... great job on the documentation. . The pictures of the front strapping are a bit more complete. Since our goal from the beginning was to build to Centurion, we've been following the "level three certification" guidelines in the CRLs and studying pics of all the approved Centurions. So, this meant mastering the mysteries of split rivets. First step was to get organized. Rivets and Brads. (Sounds like a rock band.) We used the drill attachment on the dremel to create the three holes so we could insert the rivets. Putting in split rivets on the abdomen plate. According to the CRL: "Rivets on the left side of the ab plate: a total of three fasteners, the heads should be rounded or domed, solid, approximately 5/16" (8mm) diameter and equally spaced out along the depth of the armor about 10mm from the edge. Yes, approximately 10mm from the edge. To keep the rivets from falling out during the building process, we did the MacGyver method again. A little bit of tape along the back and those rivets were behaving nicely until we could get them secured. It's a strapping ka-bob. The screwdriver is used to make holes in the elastic to make it easier to put on the split rivets. The screwdriver diameter is slightly larger than the split rivet diameter. Reference photos from the binder are open in the background, along with a second reference photo open on the iPad. Research. Research. Research. Getting the strapping into place. It's easiest to open the split rivets using two screwdrivers. The straps attached into place. And, done.

Pastries and chocolate drinks. Mmmmm.... Tim, you know how to live.

The traditional "hook in a hole" closure seemed problematic on a tapered limb, like the shin. So for this one piece, we decided upon the slide and click method. You can do it with one finger blindly because it will drop in and you'll feel the click.