ukswrath

Trooperbay (they) is a one man show Mike, although occasionally he has help from a college intern. I know at times he gets a bit overwhelmed with orders and life itself. Give him a little time to respond, he'll take care of you. One thing you quickly learn in armor building is patience.

13. Kidney cont... Install functional right side to ab strapping. Measure and install right side mount approximately 55mm (2-1/8") from kidney (ab side) and 15mm (5/8") from top edge. Let dry. Measure from kidney mount to previously install right side ab snap approximately 75mm (3"). Measure and cut 125mm (4-7/8") section of 3/4" black elastic. Starting at one end measure and punch a hole at 15mm using the snap punch tool. Install female snap. Measure next hole at 85mm (3/8"). Install second snap and recheck distance.

4. Ab & 13. Kidney Side Rivets Holes drilled, rivets installed. Measure the distance from ab rivet center to kidney rivet center. It should be 20mm. Measure and cur 3/4" webbing to 60mm. Establish center of cut sections then measure out 10mm in each direction. Mark and punch holes with snap punch. Cauterize holes using a lighter or similar. This will assist holes from expanding. The reason I don't use the soldering iron technique is because I can't be precise with my measurements, but that's just me. Place webbing on rivets and add washer. Place head of rivet on a old shirt and place it on the concrete floor, something that will NOT budge. Using a punch and hammer drive a wedge in the split rivet. Finish crushing flat with the hammer. Split rivets are finished.

13. Kidney After fitment trimming the 22mm notches were measured and cut out. 30mm reinforcement strip added. Right side Side rivet holes measured and drilled, left side. Install split rivets. 13a. Taking a break from the split rivets, measure and installed snap mounts. All mount were positioned 20mm from the edge of the kidney and to the edge of the webbing. Let dry

4. Ab cont.... 4m. Back to the Ab, kidney, side rivets and 22mm notch you all though I forgot about lol NOTE: It is not required to add the 22mm notch if your armor didn't come with it. At this point it is only being done to increase the accuracy of the build. In the beginning I knew there may be additional trimming needed in the final fitment and I was correct. Later I'll discuss where I had to shorten the posterior and kidney plated, but the point I wan to make is I needed to add cover strip material to the kidney and posterior to give the armor some rigidity in those areas lost in trimming. At that time I decided to reinforce the ab along the kidney lines to assist in the rigidity, as well as give the interior a more uniformed look. With that said, I measured and installed internal cover strips 30mm (1-3/8") in width and 165mm (6-1/2") in length at the ab to kidney seem edge. The split rivet holes were measured, drilled and talked about already so after the reinforcement material was added the holes were re-drilled and split rivets installed.

Correct, split on the left. Here's a template for you.

Hey Brandon, anything new?

Hey Pete looking at your bucket, excellent build sir On another note, your tube stripes appear to be a bit on the low side, they're to be a #2 pencil width from the cheek. With that said, if you're shooting for Centurion you might want to consider contacting gazmosis as get his opinion on if he would want them repositioned.

Opps I updated that photo due to a typo, sorry

Hey Alexander, great looking build so far sir.

Cut the return edge off between the two sections. They're designed to come together flush. As with many other troopers, if doing this leaves you with a significant gap between the two you'll have to add a shim (generally made of cover strip material) to bring your gap to a minimum or 0. Edit: You could leave a minimal return edge on the kidney side however, if there's a gap created by removing the ab return edge and a shim is still needed to be added, you're better off removing the kidney return edge so the shim can be installed accurately. Hope I'm making sense.

8. Chest & Shoulders cont... 8e. Installing strap snap mounts. Top right mount - Center of snap to outer chest plate edge is 20mm (3/4") Lower left and right mounts at 110mm (4-3/8") After glue has dried attach right shoulder snap. apply glue to left side chest strap. Position approximately 35mm (1-3/8") from edge Let dry. 8f. Install shoulder cover retainers (elastic bands). Start by wrapping a 5" section of 1/8" of white elastic material around the cover strip and back plate. Tie in a knot. Slide over cover strip. Flip cover over and remove excess elastic from knot. Center large flat washer with 1/2" hole over knot and apply clamps. This will secure the knot while drying. Apply CA glue then use Zip Kicker to cure bonding the 1/8" elastic with the 2" shoulder elastic. Remove any rough edges.

8. Chest & Shoulders cont... 8c. Installing shoulder elastic snap. I'll be sewing in the female snap at approximately 89mm (3-1/2"), or (54mm (2-1/8") seen here in the following pictures. The offset is 35mm (1-3/8") Mark location and begin sewing in snap. Check with shoulder bell strap to confirm snap placement is correct. 8d. Glue straps to back plate and left front plate at approximately 35mm (1-3/8") Let dry.

Oh I have no doubt my friend Russell here could pull off a Cantina Captain, or any sandy for that matter. I'm more concerned about him continuing to be apart of the human race do to the research, focus and accuracy it takes to be SWAT approved these days. I would love to see this more than anyone.

Then go for it.

8. Chest & Shoulders cont... 8b. Strapping. Each trooper is unique in their size and and shape. This particular section though some of the measurements will be unique to the trooper whom this is being built for, the procedure and general guide can be used by anyone. NOTE: In this build the left shoulder strap is permanently fixed to the back and chest plates on the left side, and the back plate on the right side. The right side chest plate is the only section to have a snap connection. Canon reference photo. Start off with cutting two strips of 50mm (2") wide white elastic, approximately 170mm (6-1/2"). NOTE: The length of the elastic was determined at the time of fitment seen here. The overall gap between the front and back plates was approximately 80mm (3-1/8"). Approximately 35mm (1-3/8") will be used at each end to connect the strap to the back or front plate via glue or snap. Cut two sections from elastic. Fold one approximately 30mm (1-3/16") Hand sew or use sewing machine to secure the folded section as shown. Using the same hole punch that was used to make the snap holes for the strap mounts, center and punch a hole in the loop area. Install female snap. Insert the head side of the snap on the folded side of the elastic. Place the female portion on the other side and set.

ah hahahahahahahahahahaha, that's funny hahahahahahaha. You said OCD and weathering in the same sentence. He'd be bald in a week.

There's a return edge there, but only about 1/8". I only suggest removing it if your armor fits you a bit tight and you need to make some room or eliminate chafing. Keeping the return edge effects the strapping system very little.

Thank you for the reminder I'm going to go back and incorporate that into my initial build post.

Correct. The overall height of the ab button place looks unusually large that's all. Look at yours from the side then g look at some other on EIB or Centurion submit threads. No biggie.

IT DOES!!!

LOL I know you love clean and perfect. Hope this lives up to your expectations hahaha

12. Back Plate Remove return edge. Center back plate with Kidney. Mark locations of lower snap mounts on back plate and kidney. Approximately 20mm from edge. FYI I use three mounts due to I've had snaps come loose and three works excellent IMHO. Glue in place. Let dry.

8. Chest & Shoulders (UPDATED with ATA components) Chest plate and covers untrimmed. Mark return edge and trim off. After trimming. Position cover plates in chest and mark location. Apply glue to covers. Position on chest plate and secure. Double check to ensure the cover strips are aligned with the back cover plate leading shoulder edges. Let dry.