Artshot

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!!!

I would fill the gap in the thigh with a piece of spare ABS, for no other reason than it will give you more surface to glue the outer cover strip to.

Welcome to the AM 2.0 club

In an attempt to keep busy while waiting on my forearm glue to cure (7 attempts before I was happy with it), I decided to complete my Thermal Detonator. The first problem I encountered was the over enthusiastic trimming that had been performed at manufacture, whilst I do appreciate it, it made the OCD in me start to twitch. After receiving advice (thanks Steve) about the sizes, I found that both end caps were trimmed at a slight angle (high side 18mm, low side 16mm), I thought about levelling them out at 16mm, but the difference of 4mm from the recommended depth would have bugged me, after checking the Centurion CRL, I decided to leave them alone as it was not an approval crucial difference, the face/button plate was likewise a bit short in length. I had to trim the grey tube by 5mm to reach the 190mm required length. After reading through ample builds and submissions for EIB, Centurion and the CRL's, I made the clips fit snug against the end caps and painted the four round head screws gloss black (each screw was fixed inside via a bolt, which I then super glued to stop future movement). I also drilled a "vent" hole into the grey tube prior to the fitting of the end caps, that definitely made it easier to push the end caps into place, the face plate covered the hole once glued in place. I have tried to compensate for the slight angle in the cut of the end caps by rotating them so the more obvious is hidden or under the Thermal Detonator, when I look at it, I actually like the slightly miss cut quirks, I think they give it a more authentic look. May I present my Thermal Detonator, hopefully the first of many parts that reach Centurion Level during my build.

Thanks Eric, those photo's helped to clear up a few things concerning my Thermal Detonator build. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks for the information Steve, just checked, the second set of sizes come from a "Billhag" photo (I think I have them all printed), from a lot of the builds I have followed and printed out, it looks like, when in doubt, go with "Billhag" ?

Whilst the glue on my forearm is curing, I thought I might start to construct my thermal detonator, but after digging through my file of print outs for the information, I found two diffrent photos (which I found on FISD), with different sizes. The first is:- 190mm in length Width/Depth of end cap 24mm Distance between end cap and "White Plate" 15mm "White Plate" length 108mm "White Plate" width 85mm The second is:- 190mm in length Width/Depth of end cap 20mm Distance between end cap and "White Plate" 12mm "White Plate" length 122mm "White Plate" width 95mm Whilst most of the differences are small and negligible, there's a couple that are pretty large. I have looked around for anything definative concerning construction, I understand the clips should be as close to the end caps as you can make them, got that. I am building a set of AM 2.0 armor. As I am aiming for accuracy, any information or advice would be greatly appreciated.

After reading the above, I think a heat gun is definitely off my shopping list, I am having enough trouble with E6000 (which I know I can remove and try again), I don't want to ruin rather than fix. Good call on hot water not being able to heat the ABS enough to form a return edge, I had thought that if I treated it like reshaping then I could bend new return edges by hand. Time to return to Amazon for a Sealing Iron. Thanks All for the advice

Just a quick question. Since I will have to reshape the wrist end of one of my forearms, and there's good chance I will have to do the other. Plus there's the possibility of reforming some return edges. Is a Heat Gun more practical over boiling water ? I am trying to establish what one way will cover as many things as possible.

I bought from an Amazon seller called "Twisted Envy" I have had no problem with the tube they supplied, there may be cheaper sellers though, but I had Amazon Prime at the time so I saved on shipping.

Here's hoping that the 7th time is the charm. After trying some Loctite Super Glue on a couple of test pieces of ABS, I was less than impressed with its ability to hold, it was very brittle and its unforgiving nature has made me return to E6000. So, it's 7th time, hopefully lucky, I roughened the areas to be glued, applied the E6000 and gave it plenty of time to get tacky, instead of just leaping in, I began at one end of the forearm and clamped, taped and magnetted as I went. So far it looks better than my previous attempts, however I am going to leave it till the weekend before I unwrap it and see what I got. Hopefully it's the forearm I have been wishing for.

Well, I have glued, unglued and re-glued my left forearm 6 times, each time there was a different amount of the join raised up and out of position, just enough to annoy me. At this point I am thinking its Super Glue for me, luckily I found some that allows for repositioning, until it's glued forever, I will be masking off any area that I do not want glue to get on and doing it in 2 inch stages. Wish me Luck

Hey Ferg I spent a long time looking around for the best deal on E6000 I ended up going with Amazon, I figured if there was anything wrong with it, I preferred there return policy. I have been getting a lot of those "breaks" as well, no idea why, most likely this message is going to have some.

If at first it doesn't look right, rip it apart and start again. After removing the clamps, magnets and tape I discovered that long areas of the joins were not level, it bugged me enough that it was time to start again. Thank you E6000

Weird, even in the message I posted above, the line break signs came out as garbage, but the actual line break was messed up and showed the line break sign.<br><br> I posted my initial topic update a couple of hours ago.

I just got <br><br> and no photo in my latest post, is this down to the current settings ?<br><br> Just checking.

My initial plan was to use the blue tape, but I forgot the cardinal rule of having everything I am going to need within arms reach, luckily the tape I used seams to have worked....I hope. I did notice that the once round wrist opening is now slightly oval, hoping that will flex back into shape once the clamp at that edge is removed, I would like it round, but not sure about soaking it in boiling water. Definetly going to have to sand a flat spot for when I glue the outer cover strip in place as I want it to settle flat and not up on a slight high join.

Well, after 24hrs and not having much patience, I removed the magnets and clamps and tested the joint, very strong and hopefully very flexible. Next I prepped the two areas I was going to glue by roughening them up a bit, wiped away all the flotsam and covered the areas in E6000, waited till they were tacky, then went at them armed with "a couple of clamps and a handful of magnets".....incidentally that should be the title of anybody's "How to put armour together" video. It took me a while to wrangle the seams together and line them up, the armour really did not want to cooperate, but with fingers covered in glue, hands nipped by magnets and a fair amount of electrical tape that was closest to hand, I wrestled it into submission. Soon as everything was as stable as I could make it, I gently put it down and stepped away, I am convinced if I listen carefully I can hear it straining, not unlike the cables on a suspension bridge. Tomorrow when I remove the magnets, clamps and tape, I may take the precaution of wearing safety goggles and a hard hat. Wish me luck.

Well, after trimming both my forearms to size and cutting the internal cover strips (15mm), it was time to open the E6000, whoa.....thought I could smell colours, until I opened a few more windows. So, here's the first internal cover strip glued in place and clamped......I like clamps, cannot have too many. I waited the longest 24hrs known to man, then removed the clamps and trimmed away the surplus E6000, I pay too much attention to tiny details, so it took a while until I was happy and did the second internal cover strip, no photo of the second as I figured, you see one internal cover strip, you see them all. After another 24hrs I removed the clamps and trimmed away the excess on the second internal cover strip. This is the stage the forearm is at now. I have glued both halves together now, only one side though as I know there is going to be a lot of stress and tension on these pieces until fully set, once the first is solid, I will do the second. As I was gluing I had a bit of a struggle to keep the pieces in place, really glad that E6000 is easy to remove as there's a lot of gluey finger prints on the outside that are going to need cleaning off. I also realised, I could have done with more magnets, or at least a better way of controlling them, midway through trying to wrangle the magnets into position a few jumped around and gave a very nice "magnet nip". Between the random cuts and nicks and now the nice red nip on my finger, I am beginning to think this armour is trying to kill me. Not sure if it's common, but I have the feeling I will need to sand the join slightly on the outside to create a flat spot to improve the gluing of the external 15mm cover strip. Be sure to come back in 48hrs for the next thrilling instalment, going to double the time on this join.

Just curious, when you trimmed your biceps, did you trim them to fit or did you trim them to fit with a bit of taper, like the forearms ? The more I look at mine I am wondering if a slight taper from the top to the elbow to try and match the size of the forearms is the way to go ?

I taped my forearm to a position I wanted them to stay in, then sanded them smooth on a whole sheet of sand paper attached to a solid board, that way I could check to see if any daylight was getting in from an uneven edge. I thought about gluing the cover strips first, but didn't want to sand the edges of them once they were fitted.