Spycee

It's on hold for the moment, I need to finish my armor, and I do a lot of overtime at work, so the free time is practically non existant :-) I plan to try it again with a second vacuum, and with a heat source other than the oven.

Excellent service with Mark from AP. The armor is very shiny and smooth, and no need to paint.

That's what I use. The red is for rough work (rounding corners) and the yellow serves to smooth edges. I used that on all the edges of the armor and it is very nice ! But yeah, does not works well on glossy plastic ... Thanks, I'll check for something finer and wet. There's a models shop (like trains and planes) not too far from here, I'll go see if they have something like that.

It seems it does not work for me ... If I just dust a little bit of paint it just does small bumps of paint all over the plastic. If I spray more it looks better (not identical look and color, but close) but the transition between ABS and paint has the same problem than dusting the paint.

Thanks for the ideas ! I'll search for a finer sandpaper this week, I don't know exactly where to get it. 400 was the finest I was able to get at the hardware store.

That's exactly what I did ! I thought I was the only one to think of that :-) You can see it a bit on my TD pictures. Scratching my beautiful armor ? NO WAY !!!

Doesn't seem to work... But it helped a bit. I'll try to do a couple more shots of Novus to see if its better. Thanks !

That's the problem... It looks perfect depending on the lighting. If you look at it to see the gloss, you would see that there's no gloss on the seam. One of the pictures I already posted shows what I mean.

I'll stop with the shims for now, I'm too frustrated ... I'm not able to get the gloss on them. I tried the paint on ABS pieces but it's not working, I'll have to do some tests someday. I took pictures and it looks very nice on them, depending on the light it's very easy to see the seams with the sanding. I don't think it can't stop me from getting the armor approved. Is it ?

I found the paint you used, but it's not a combo primer-paint just paint... Do you think it will make a difference ?

N-I-C-E !!!

Finally I tried to cut the clips, and it was a complete success I cut it with a metal grinder and sanded it after. Thanks for your advices ! And after ... I tried to fill the shims with ABS paste. What a disaster. I tried to make it larger to soften the transition, but now I just have a large band that I can't remove the scratches made by sanding. I trired Novus 3, 2, 1, alouette ! How the hell can I sand it to make it even with a tape to protect the polished part ??? I finished sanding it with a 400 sandpaper, but I think the larger scratches are still there and the 400 one didn't remove them entirely. Here is the result : After this disaster, I tried it narrower on the other side : Oh, and I began removing the black paint on the boots, but I ran out of deglazer on the second boot ... So I have to buy another bottle tomorrow to continue.

What is wet paper ?

I would cut the metal closer to the screw holes if I was sure to do a good job, but I never did something like that on that kind of metal.

Some pictures on the armor : It seems way too high for me ...

I think I have a little problem : I got the TD clips, but it seems that they are not cut at the right place : The screw holes are not at the same place as other TD clips I saw on the forum. Well, I think the holes are at the right place but the clips are just longer than they should be. Because of that the TD "plate" is placed higher than I see on other TD. What do you think ? It does not bother me a lot, but I don't want to have a problem for certification (I intend to go Centurion at a later time).

That TK vision is killing me ! It's panicking not to know what is just in front of me.

Yeah it was bothering me all the time I wore the armor ... I constantly had to try to pull them higher, it didn't feel "right" when moving the arms. And I think the black elastics around the biceps were too low, and dragging the shoulder bell lower than it should. I'll have to remember to pull them higher. Another thing to do : a checklist of things to do in order when putting the armor on : after I finished, I saw I forgot the neck seal And one of the gloves fell on the floor ... I was lucky my wife didn't have her cellphone in hand to take a picture !

Yeah, it doesn't seem very easy to walk with the upper part of the thigh so high. Are you able to climb stairs ? Hey, it's almost finished, woo hoo !

Yeah it's a marathon ! I don't think 20mm will be enough to be able to withstand the pressure... I hope you still have enough ABS. You can try though, maybe it will be OK. Oh, and I still have to do the ABS paste for the shims !

Ok, what's left to do : - Thermal detonator - I melted a bit of one of the caps :-( - Boots - Velcro on the shins Here are some shots with the armor : A bit of strapping :

Ohhh, good idea ! But I wouldn't use that space for something of value, it's too easy to lose or to be stolen.

Great ! Except the hand plates I don't see anything that needs to be corrected. Good job 😃

What do you mean with elastic ?

Here are some pictures of the left shim : The curve is correct, I used 6 or 7 clamps to keep it tight. I just have to pour ABS paste on it, it will be done next week-end. I'm currently doing the right shim, the inner part of the shim is glued. I worked on the sniper plate : I bent the top part that goes on the left side of the shin (the exterior side) so that it goes over the top of the shin. I also bent a bit the curve of the side (it's hard to see on the picture, but it's no more a straight line, it is a bit concave at the middle, on the top part). With that, I succeeded at placing it almost correctly.