TK bondservnt

nice looking lid, all I can see is the tubestripes look a little close to the cheeks... other than that it's very well built!

only thing I noticed was the hengstler face bolt should be a flathead countersunk 6/32 bolt, just like the ones used for helmet ears! very nice job of fabrication!

duct tape from the inside of the armor for test fitting. I also use white duct tape under all the insides at each glue line. inside tab butt joined parts wont leave any residue. you just don't slap it on there... it's detail work! with a fast drying glue and just another few days of work ryan, tim and vern all had a hand in working this armor up. we'll be using the shoulder bells attached to each other method, and the basic clamshell strapping. I looks like ryan will need about 3" of sidegap shim. we completely detail sanded all parts to the overlap trim. next work day is glue and clamp, and snap tab creation. should be wearable very very soon! we're going to use the hidden 6/32 bolt and nut for the kneeplate and the thigh power cell. the key tools today were the palm sander, and my bright and shiny new 1/2 inch belt swivel sander! all the returns didn't even need cutting, just sanded them into shape... detailed build photos during clamping and fitting tests will show the details in the trimout...

it has to walk, and carry 3 men in front, and 2 squads in back.

antibiotics are your friend! get well soon brother! you do top notch work...

I comm is your answer!

hope everything works out for you sarah!

he pre stretches the plastic into a vertical bubble almost as high as the mould buck. then again, after it's cooled he uses the formech manual machine to again blow air into it to release it from the buck. I finally found the gif animation I did from his video to show this:

in that photo you can see clearly the rivet in the center of the belt. there were 3 rivets used on the belt and 2 snaps. there were rivets used to assemble the helmet cheeks, and I have a photo here of the Sci-man armor with a rivet on the thigh power cell.

when I look at AA's forming videos he pre stretches the ABS with air. it's blown inside like a bubble. and you can also see that he uses air to cool it almost right after it's formed. he uses a glove and a bamboo stick to handle webbing, and detailing the faceplate you can see that he blows quite a bit of air into it

having a latex drop box would be a bad idea... the silicone or latex is not strong enough to take the abuse that a drop box has to take. I have karin's wonderful handguards, but even those are not a strong material. my left glove's wrist tore about 1/4" from one day of trooping for 3.5 hours. not that I'm complaining... but it will have to be glued again. the best way to handle the noise when dealing with drop boxes would be to listen closely to the original release of episode 4. you can hear the ABS clinking and popping as troopers walk. I would do it like mason suggests, inner drop boxes, and foam to keep the sound down. you should attach your drops with white webbing, and keep them close to the belt!

as you can see it's just the first pre trim. everything will be cut again, and then finally sanded. this just shows the removal of the forming edges... lot's of work still to do!

I use 1/4" screw posts from lowes. you drill out the belt at the proper locations (3) then you place the chicago screw with the screw side facing inwards to the armor. then you drill out your AB plate where the belt meets the AB in those 3 spots. put your canvas belt onto the screw posts and line up and mark the INSIDE of your belt by putting a small amount of white paint on the lip of each screw. after the paint marks the belt in the right locations cut a hole with a box cutter in an X shape at each hole, keep it small. push the screw post body though the plastic belt, the canvas belt, and the AB plate. put the screw part inside and tighten. your belt plastic and canvas will now be attached and be removable. cover the screw post tops with a small square of plastic with rounded corners, and cut out a circle inside each square then make a circle just a bit larger than your hole in the square and glue the square, and the circle together. and then glue the cap you've just made, over the belt's screw post point.

my ESB eib has 6 teeth, silk gloves with sewn on details. flat lenses... I think silk with sewn fits the promo shot best, and they should be centurion status elements sure! also having an E-11 with an m19 or the greeblie stunt version might be a may have alternative to the e-11 with an m38/m40, as well the london prop store version with the m19 would be a great "may have"

I think pauldron color should be white black or orange. just making it orange, I think might detract from the look. does the videogame pack design support centurion status? how about allowing E-11's and other sidearms as a "may have" se-14's and such? just having a launcher makes vulnerable to small arms fire. having the smaller pistol would make sense, or an E-11. have you ever fired a launcher round too close? it blows up you, and the rebel you launched at.

it's a good idea to fasten the belt at the caps to the AB plate. helps to hold everything in proper position. the drop boxes should align exactly with the end belt cap, and can even be fastened with them.

this is a great pictorial view of a bad pull.. this should have been thrown into the bin ( trash can )

looks like mounting the scope rail won't be exactly correct as he has filled the last hole on top with T Track. usually the scope rail goes into the hole. lot's of ways were used, but the best looking ones use the method mentioned above.

I put my fan right in the center of the frown. blows air right into my nose and on my face. my mic is under my baclava so the wind noise is kept to a minimum. having my nose under the baclava helps also to keep from fogging up my bucket!

I did my ESB lid hero style, flat green, 6 tooth.

screen accurate requires a very small person. 5.7 140-165 lbs. I am 5'11" and 225-235lbs. I need sidegap covers/shims and my arms are so tight they leave huge marks. if a maker made a suit with sidegaps built in/ with the proper ANH style and size, and a helmet just 5% larger... then larger people, but not large enough for AM... would be happy!

I just carefully heated them over a flame held in the curved position. you don't need to heat up the whole strap, just the center, and a little more... I would not put them fully in the oven... no way! you'd take the shine off if they're abs formed glossy. you really just need a little heat at a time... patience works well. I put a piece of cardboard on a flat griddle. placed the straps face up. heated till just slightly hot. pick up the cardboard and use that to hold the strap and carefully bend in 1/2 circle holding the cardboard and strap from the middle with gloves. you don't want to touch the shiny surface, and holding it by the edges just bend it on down.

try tk 4510 he has dark green lens, maybe he can get you the other kind.

a small amount of return at the corners and larger at the center line. look closely at the screenshots.

this part still is the pride of my collection!