Artshot

After prepping a sheet of 2mm Plasticard for my mass production of snaps, measuring, drilling and countersinking holes for a more flush fit, I got bored and with the aid of a roll of tape and some dislocation of limbs, I did a test fit of my main torso parts. Non of the parts have been trimmed for fit, but I am happy that I will not need to shim the waist, I was less happy with the cowboy gait I had to adopt as the untrimmed cod & butt was playing havoc. However, enough of that, here's some photos. I need to pay attention when I centre my upper chest as it looks a bit over to one side, it also needs to come down a bit, or I risk decapitation. I taped the butt to the kidney to simulate the snaps, I can see that I need to move the outer snaps closer to the edge to try and reduce the separation, my upper back has not been taped or sized, it's definitely too high up at the moment, but without the cod and butt being trimmed the main body is a bit low, hopefully they will meet in the middle. As you can see by the cod, it's not trimmed so it pushed out and increases the side gap, this will disappear when I trim the cod and butt and pull the pieces together better. I managed to get a photo of my shoulders before trimming, there's quite an overlap and also a bit of a difference in width, I am thinking that I will trim both at a point where there nearest the same width across, is that right ? As I return to snap making, I am left with a couple of questions. 1) Is there a preferred distance between the front and back upper chest and upper back, or is it just a case of best fit in conjunction with the covering shoulder bridges ? 2) As I plan on cutting the 22mm x 22mm kidney notch, will I need to trim the butt to the reduced notch, 22mm back from it's original kidney edge ?, I have looked through a few builds but cannot tell one way or the other, and for the life of me I cannot find the reference photo I know I have seen. As always, any and all comments are welcome, only by my mistakes being pointed out can I learn to not make them.

After my minor panic attack , I went and looked through a lot of centurion and Expert Infantry submissions, after a few hours of reading I totally forgot why I was there. This weekend I attempt to figure out strapping and possibly reduce the return edges on my main torso pieces, especially where the butt joins the kidney and upper back, I figure 5mm should be fine.

Surely it's 11 dimples on the left forearm and 12 on the right ? I just looked through a lot of centurion submissions for confirmation, whilst I have seen a few 11 & 11 dimpled forearm builds, I never saw any with 12 dimples on the left.

Happy to help, especially since I consider this site and the information it contains......Priceless.<br><br> Transaction ID 7HF733424M901291L

May I present to those still reading this thread, my arms, a lot of blood...lots of blood, sweat, and tears....too many to count, have gone into getting them this far, although until the left shoulder bell swoop was pointed out, I actually thought I had badly cut shoulders, you really do learn something new every day. Oh, and because I had already taken the photos, here's my now completed biceps, after a bit of boiling to get them to fit better, and an application of ABS paste to fill the return edge join gaps. Now all I have to do is figure out the internal strapping of my arms. I have bought 2 inch black elastic for the forearm to bicep join, is this applied to the interior of the elbow ? And, should it be attached with the forearm as close to or even slightly inside the lower bicep opening ?

Just finished reading your build, stunning work, so many questions I needed to ask have been answered in your build.

Got my ticket for the 17th, would have preferred the 16th 00:05 showing, but I had no interest of taking binoculars and watching from the back right corner, who would have thunk there would have been such a rush

Thanks for the information everybody, I know what I am doing tonight, although it feels like that's all I do, measure...cut.....trim.....repeat.

I was just about to start to trim my shoulder bridges, then realised my folder of "All things Stormtrooper" had no information on the width they should be, anybody seen sizes anywhere or know what they should be ?

Hi and welcome to the AM 2.0 club The gap in the return edge on the join of the two halves of your bicep is easily fixed with ABS paste (little scraps of ABS dissolved in acetone until you get a sticky paste, dries just like ABS), have a look at my build at my forearm ABS pasting, it's easy You may need to apply a thin piece of spare ABS to the back to give the paste support though, but since it's in an area that is not going to be seen, then it will look fine. Number 4 on your list are supports for the helmet head band that comes with your kit, if your going to use padding to fit the helmet, then they will not be needed.

Hey Bruce I bought my TD Clips from "Imperial Supply Depot" along with my holster, neck seal and green lenses, which come in one piece and my white canvas belt. Since there in the UK it was a lot easier and quicker to buy from them, there are a lot of sources of the misc pieces you will need on this site, everything you will need

Hey Bruce I was following the builds of "Kredal" & "Ukswrath" when I started looking for how to boil my forearms, I cannot remember how long I left it before reshaping, but both of the mentioned builds will help. I do remember by the time I got around to reshaping, both forearms had been glued for about 3 days, which gave a nice solid bond to start with. My main advice is that you reshape slowly, let the ABS take the shape, don't force it, don't let the ABS get soft, just pliable.

As I am at the Biceps point of my own AM 2.0 build (just need the outer cover strips), I am thinking there going to need some reshaping to turn the slight squarish oval into a more comfortable shape. I had to boil my forearms slightly to reshape the wrist openings, I did it after all the cover strips had been glued on, the boiling water did not effect the glue, just had to go slowly to let the ABS bend and not force it, you could pop the cover strips if you apply to much force. I noticed a slight memory to the ABS, so if you have to redunk in the boiling water it may try to go back to its original shape. Dunking in the cold water helps to set the piece in it's new shape, of course trying to not boil my hands was also a challenge.

Thanks Tony After having a good look over the photo it's all a bit clearer now, obviously the internal strap on the shoulder bell will hold the bicep parallel and snug (along with providing support), however the bending of the upper arm will change that angle depending on the position, arm into the body = larger angle, arm crooked = less angle. Maybe if I stopped overthinking the smaller details, I might get this thing finished

Welcome to the AM builders club

Well, it's taken a while, but I eventually finished my forearms and started on my biceps, a lot easier than my forearms, but not without problems. I noticed when I was assembling my left bicep that it's slightly squarish oval shaped, so it looks like it's another trip to the boiling water, however here's my first photo's of my fit after about 2 cm trimmed from each side of each piece, whilst it's not as snug as I might have liked it, I realise that the bicep gets a lot of flex, so I thought it best to leave a bit more space, my only concern is that the top outer edge looks to be a bit of a distance away from my arm, poking out a bit, is that okay ?, as it will be covered by the shoulder bell ? I left a 3mm return edge to match what I left on the forearms, although the inner scoop return might get reduced a bit to aid the fit, how snug into the armpit does it go ? Also, while talking of shoulder bells, where do they sit in relation to the shoulder ?, full over it or more to the outside edge ? Anyway, time for some photos, as always, please feel free to stear/push me in the right direction if you can see improvements to be made.

How I personally would approach this would be to cut an extra wide inner cover strip and use it to join both sides together at a comfortable fit, I would then straighten up the area in the middle so that it was even on both sides and they were the same distance apart, then I would cut a strip of abs and glue it into the gap, hopefully if the fit is tight then you would only have two very thin gaps running parallel down the length, I would then fill these with ABS paste and sand them smooth. I would then apply a regular 15mm outer strip to the top of this to give the correct look to your forearm. I think with a little bit extra work you can definitely salvage the forearm.

Sorry if these problems have been covered, or even fixed, but my frustration is getting the better of me.<br><br> Over the last two days I have tried to post an update to my ANH build thread, however no matter what I do, either through Safari, Chrome or Tapatalk, I am unable to get any photobucket linked photos to embed, all I get is lines of code in my thread and no photos.<br><br> I have used my iPad in the past and it was fine, even after the server move it worked, to a degree, now however, not a thing of use which is hindering my ability to ask a few questions as without accompanying photos, things are difficult to explain.<br><br> Is there a fix out there that I have not found ?<br><br> Thanks for any help.

For some reason I can no longer link any photos from photobucket, it just comes up with a load of code, was fine last time I posted.<br><br> I just tried every variable, no luck.

As somebody who was in the same place as you, I had a worry that as soon as I started cutting, I would end up hacking my armour to pieces. Got to say, now that I have started, I am loving every minute of it. Research it, Measure it, Measure it again, Cut it, Glue it, Repeat. You will learn to love E6000 glue.

I tried some "Revell Painta Clean Brush Cleaner" on some humbrol paint on abs as a test, came off no problem, but it had only been on for 24 hours.

Quick question for any AM 2 builders reading this. Are the outer bicep pieces identical ? I know the "Thumb Print" is in the left inner, but I cannot see a difference in the outer pieces, just want to be sure before I start trimming and fitting them.

Great Build, I am learning a lot from your progress

"Belt Assembly 101" just went into my "This is how you do it" file

Well, after beginning the build of my left forearm about a month ago, I have finished it…….I think. After initially measuring, fitting and trimming my forearm down to a size I was comfortable with, I began the gluing of cover strips, inner, inner, outer, outer (one at a time), the last inner cover strip is where I encountered problems, I took it apart 6 times before I was happy with it, either parts did not glue correctly or it started to spring apart once the magnets, clamps and tape was removed. Here are a few things I learned on my seventh attempt:- 1) Scuff both area’s to be glued, you know it makes sense. 2) Leave the glue to get tacky, it sounds obvious, but it really helps, do not be in a hurry. 3) Use a round dowel or something similar to apply the glue, I found this works great as you sort of roll the glue evenly along the area. 4) Line everything up before you begin, fighting with magnets when you’re in the middle of gluing is not fun. 5) If the cover strip or piece you’re gluing has a habit of sliding out of position when gluing (this accounts for 2 regluing’s of mine), use a couple of magnets to block its movement, tape the magnets though to avoid any scuffing. Granted, all the above might be common sense or basics that everybody knows, but if my mistakes can help somebody repeating them, then my work is done. Okay, so on with the photos Here’s my left forearm, after I had successfully glued the inner and outer cover strips in place, prior to gluing the outer cover strips I gently sanded away any raised or uneven joins that would stop the outer cover strip lying flat. Once the cover strips had set, I trimmed away the surplus glue and using a piece of sandpaper on a flat surface I gently levelled out the wrist edge, I actually angled the inner side slightly to aid wrist mobility. I also took this opportunity to fix a twist to the opening using boiling water, not as scary as I thought it would be, currently it is slightly oval, which I like as I have to put my hand in sideways then turn it to line up the raised indent strip, which sort of locks it in place. At this point I found my set of Jewellers files (used during my E-11 build) and rounded the ends of the outer cover strips, put a strip of tape on the armour around the area, this should stop any errant slips with the file marking your armour, incidentally I cannot recommend a set of these files enough, there cheap and have a really fine grain. Once the wrist end was finished I started on the elbow end, I knew going in that this end was going to be tricky and involving rebuilding a return edge, thanks to advice from FISD I bought a sealing iron and after a lot of practice on spare ABS, I carefully began to bend the return into a better shape, I wanted it more rounded than I currently had. I used a wooden Popsicle stick to brace and stop the plastic curling too far over as I went, again I found this was not as scary as I had envisioned, no pile of melted plastic. Soon as the ABS returned to being firm, I began to trim the final width of the elbow end return, I opted for around 4mm, which gave me comfort and returned the illusion of armour thickness. So now it was time for another learning experience, making ABS paste, just add ABS scraps and Acetone and Hey Presto, instant ABS, the first fill was done with relatively thick paste, this helped fill the gaps in the return edge join. This is where I found the Jewellers files were great, they give you great control as you file the ABS into a new shape, the fine grain leaves only slight scuffing and a little bit of dullness to surrounding ABS, once I had the return looking like a continuous edge I noticed a few bubbles and pockets in the surface, this time I used a thinner solution of paste and almost painted it onto the surface, each thin coat building it up a little more, I again used the files to bring the return edge back. I also used the files to put a slight curve to the outer cover strips corners after I trimmed them down to just a few mm short of the beginning of the return edge curve. Okay, so this is where my attention to detail comes in, or my inability to let something lie, I used more ABS paste to continue the inner cover strip up to the inside of the return edge and blend it in to the inner lip, I know it was unneeded, but it would have bugged me. Okay, so that’s where I am so far, 1 month in and only a forearm to show (plus a Thermal Detonator as a diversion), this will not be a quick build, but I am in no hurry, after all I have only wanted Stormtrooper armour since I was 9…….now 47. Sorry for the overly wordy and less picturey update (must remember to take photos as I build). Next up, my right forearm………Dun Dun Duuuun!!!