Artshot

Here's a few things I did when putting my AM 2.0 forearms together 1) Fit them from the elbow end, the wrist has no return edge so that end is where the adjusting of length will happen. 2)I trimmed the return at the elbow to about 5mm (tried to keep that size for most of my build). 3)I found trimming the return early in fitting really help me get a better fit. 4)Get the elbow end comfortable first (I have about a fingers gap). 5)Once the elbow is sized, gradually start removing "triangles/wedges" to taper the shape, 0 at the elbow and maybe 5mm at the wrist, the shape will gradually become more conical than tube shaped. 6)Double check everything, better to cut a little many times than too much once. Hope that helps Oh, and I have to put on the forearms then the gloves as leaving space for the handguards meant a bigger gap at the wrist than I wanted.

Great Read.....as always

I rounded the corners on my cover strips, apart from to me looking more pleasing, I did not want sharper edges in areas that may snag.

Welcome to the "AM2 Build Club".......erm, not sure if I am supposed to talk about it

Speaking as somebody who glued and took apart a stubborn forearm around 7 times, I can attest to E6000 being user or in my case misuser friendly, slow and steady is the way.

I sized my AM2 forearms by establishing how much overlap there was, then trimming a point midway in the overlap, that way an equal amount came off each trim, I also reduced the elbow return edge to approx. 5mm, I kept that return size when I got to my biceps. Once I got the elbow end of my forearm sized comfortably I began to trim the wrist size, I did this by gradually removing thin wedges, 0 at the elbow and various trims at the wrist, that way it shaped the armor better to fit the arm as your arms are not tubular, there more tapered to the wrist. As with all trimming, tape is your friend, little trims are much better When gluing together (I used internal cover strips first), match the elbow returns together, the wrist opening can be sanded level. Hope some of all that is helpful

I have used white Chinagraph pencils before, there great for working on dark surfaces and should wipe off pretty easy.

Just added your build to my "Go To" folder for reference for my own build, outstanding work

Well, I did it, I went and put some holes in my ab piece for the rivets, got to say that I may have measured and checked quite a few times before I just went for it, it sure is nerve wracking when it's something you cannot cover up......with girded loins, I went and cut the notches as well, going to sit back with a drink now and shoot things in Battlefront Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Welcome to the world of AM 2

Definetly going to steal....Erm borrow the ad to kidney slot connection, my join keeps slipping when I do test fits Since I don't want to put holes in my ab for poppers, I am thinking about using magnets, I looked at the CRL and there's nothing against it, which seams to be the case with most interior fixings.

Hey Josh Thanks for the confirmation of the rivets placement, I was going to start marking the kidney piece and transfer across, which means I totally forgot to take into consideration the beginning of the cod and how close a rivet could look to that.............this is why I ask questions And to have my second "Doh!!" moment, I totally forgot about the added weight of the holster and blaster......sheesh, I am having a slow day I think if I glue the magnets to the interior of the armor I should be able to avoid belt slippage, however attaching the magnets to the belt is going to be my next challenge as I am not going to cut into the belt. Build armor..........the fun never stops

In my continuing battle of wills with my armor (torso), this weekend I thought I would start putting some holes in it, mainly the Ab to Kidney strapping, but as always, I have questions 1)After cutting my kidney notch of 22mm x 22mm, the distance is 10mm to the edge of the side domed rivet (making the centre of the hole 14mm in) ? 2) Then the top and bottom domed rivet is 20mm from the top edge of the kidney plate and 20mm up from the notch edge, the third domed rivet is centred between these ? (the Ab side copying there position) 3)The right side popper is 10mm in and 10mm down from the edges, that's to the edge, not the centre ? 4) I think the cod and butt rivet & popper placements are for best fit....right ? I know these might feel like trivial questions, but I tend to think in mm (stupid job to blame for that) Oh and as a bonus question, I have been looking through the CRL about the belt, whilst I know its riveted together, is there any thoughts on using magnets instead of poppers to attach it to the armor ?, I really don't want to put holes in my nice shiny armor if I can avoid it, plus I thought it might help with adjusting the belt height as that tends to pop up from time to time. I see a very busy weekend ahead of me As always, any and all comments are welcome.

Excellent, another AM2......more the merrier

Definitely going to increase the amount of snaps in my build after my butt fell off during a tape fit, don't want that to happen on a troop

After a lot of advice about my back plate and with stronger tape, I decided to do another tape fit. My main concern was the spurs on either side at the bottom of the back plate where I wanted it to join with no or minimal gap to my kidney piece, so I went at the piece again and trimmed as much as I could whilst still leaving the illusion of a constant return edge width. Here's my right side. Here's my left side. For these shots I only used a strip of tape to keep my back plate and kidney together as there are no snaps attached yet, sorry for the slight blurring and the strange angle of my back, I had to contort myself with my camera to get these photos. I realise I could have used my belt to keep the sides together, but I wanted to see what was going on, as you can see the top of the abs has a habit of sliding behind the kidney and thus separating the lower edge, they do go together cleanly, but tend to twist, I will fashion some sort of tongue and groove fitting to stop this happening in future. And finally, here's my back plate against the kidney piece. After all the hassle I was having with this part of the build (following Ukswrath's advice, I pulled everything further north), I am happy it's sorted itself out and feel confident to start the strapping now. Of course as soon as finished taping, I bent over and my butt fell off......I think I am going to add an additional two straps, or failing that, put a drop of E6000 inside the snap before I close it. And finally, now that my kidney piece is in its happy place, the shoulder straps are near to were they need to be.....on my shoulders, and not on my back where they were earlier. I will be removing some of the shoulder return and thinning the width before I attach the white elastic strap, thinning should give it more flex and will definetly make the area more comfortable. And after my butt fell off, I think I definetly will be doubling up on the strap attachment points on my shoulders. As always, any and all comments are welcome, and to those who have offered advice so far, thankyou and keep them coming.

Whilst it took me seven attempts to glue one of my forearms to a fit I was happy with and I was close to putting everything in a box and forgetting about it, after my fighting with my back plate this afternoon, I am remembering my forearms with a fondness now....sigh

Hey Jason, thanks for the reply, I am still have a fight with my back plate. This afternoon I did the final trimming of my backplate, the returns are now a regular distance all around and I managed to trim away some of the bottom "spur". I also tried a test fit with the torso parts of my armor, which is a pain when just using tape, whilst the side that will be riveted will be fine, I definetly think I am going to have to fit snaps to the other side, or even a tongue and groove setup that I have seen on a few builds. especially as the joining edge wants to overlap. So, after I eventually got everything taped in place with my cod and butt as snug as I could go without my voice changing frequency, I find that if my back plate is taped to the kidney return edge, then it falls short of my shoulders for the shoulder bridges as the shoulders of the back plate push it away from my body. First question, is this a quirk of the AM 2 armor ? Second question, is there any recommended length to leave the shoulders of the back plate ?, I know they get covered by the shoulder bridges, but I don't want them hanging on by there fingertips, so to speak. Third question, currently my back plate shoulder pieces have a return on them, should I just trim that off so that they are as thin as the ABS ?, I think it will give a better fit and hopefully make back plate lie better on my back, I just don't want to trim something off that I cannot glue back. I also discovered this afternoon that back plates are not very aerodynamic.... Any and all comments, help, wise words, pity or even prayers are gratefully welcome. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Being one of those nitpicking people, I tend to post in here, then once I spot the random nonsense, I open up the tapatalk app and delete them. Double the fun p.s unless I post from work (which I may be doing now), then everything is fine as my work pc is using Internet Explorer.

Well, I eventually began trying to figure out the strapping of my kit, I thought since I made all those snap plates, I should eventually start using them. Firstly, here’s my shoulder bells & biceps, I still need to put in the elastic strap and make a strap hook. Next, here’s the interior of my kidney armor and butt piece, there currently taped together as I wanted to line up the position of the snap plates better, I also made sure to leave enough space on the kidney armor to cut the kidney notch, I have thoughts on making a false piece to maintain the illusion of armor thickness. And here’s the reason for my current headaches and occasional temper tantrum. I trimmed down the sides of my armor to get rid of the surplus ABS and still maintain the illusion of thickness. As you can see in the photos, there is still a spur along the side and bottom edge, I have used tape (ignore the random tape in other places) to show where I think I should still trim more off to try and get rid of the spur and even out the bottom return edge, this will hopefully help with my next problem. My intention was to have the back piece fit against the kidney piece with no visible black, however the spur and the shape of the back plate are not making this easy. Even if I trim as much as I can without actually removing any large areas of armor and changing its shape, I am going to run into problems when trying to bend my back. After looking over a few builds and submission photos, I think the problem must lie with the overall shape of the back plate, they really do come in all shapes and sizes, I already had to file the bottom return to get a bulge out of it an level it off. I taped my back plate to my kidney to simulate a gap of 5 mm or so, there is still going to be a little bit of the back plate spur dropping below the top edge of the kidney plate, which I think I will have to slightly round or they may scratch my kidney armor. So, after all that rambling, what is a preferred gap between back pieces, either back to kidney or kidney to butt ? (my butt plate is currently against the kidney armor, but I am thinking that whatever I make the gap between back plate and kidney I will copy between kidney armor and butt plate) Or am I driving myself mad over something that is not an issue, I have looked over multiple screenshots and as usual they wander from one thought to another. Sometimes my nitpicking attention to tiny trivial detail can be my undoing or in the case of my armor, my delay. I hope all of that makes sense, I tried to fill gaps with photos

The score lines are just a guide, there never going to work with everybody as we are all different sizes....some bigger than others....sigh. It's the fine tuning and customising to your body size that will make the kit yours, I would reduce the return edges at your elbow ends of the forearms to at least half what you have.

Nice work on the helmet, taking the time to fine tune little things is going to make this kit stand out.

Just a thought, I used to build a lot of model kits and the easiest way I found to remove stubborn transfers was to use double sided tape, the transfer used to lift pretty easy. However, if the helmet is thin you will need to be careful and do a little bit at a time so you don't cause any damage.

The thing that's immediately apparent to me is that when looking downward at the helmet, the teeth look really crooked on one side, otherwise I really like the look of the helmet.

Speaking as somebody who took multiple attempts to get a stubborn forearm lined up, E6000 all the way