Neb Sgird

Aren't big brown boxes just the best?

I'm late to the game here, but I concur with what has been said. Pull up that butt to earn yourself another half inch or so, but that back gap isn't going to close too much more with how tall you are. Not a problem at all. You'll be joining the ranks soon, I'm sure!

Looking good! To further minimize that back gap, you could pull your entire ab/cod/butt/kidney up a bit. But you're definitely good for basic approval! PS sorry I haven't had time of late to check in on your build thread. Glad to see you've done a great job! Sent from my LG-H872 using Tapatalk

Looking good trooper! If I was your GML, you would be approved as is. A few little things The cover strips on your biceps are a tad too long. Trim them to be in line with the bicep itself. Your forearms seem a bit long for your body. I can especially notice this when your handguards slip into them a bit in your "at attention" picture Your thighs could probably be pulled up a tad.

@TKittell's belt is great, I troop with one myself. Yes, you can definitely reinforce problem areas (corners of the chest, top of the shins, etc.) from behind with strips of ABS, sackcloth, or the like. If you do plenty of research, check build threads and centurion approval pictures, post any questions you might have around here somewhere, and always measure twice and cut once, you aren't likely to mess up anything irreparably. There's a treasure trove of resources and helpers here on FISD (and in your local garrison, I'm sure) that will help you through.

Some pics would help us see just how bad the problem is and give you better advice

If you're asking specifically about the pre-approval forums, the answer is...kind of. Most of us here aren't nearly as familiar with the Spec Ops requirements and CRLs as we are our own. You would post here at your own risk, knowing we might end up giving you wrong advice. That said, we could probably help with things like fitting. Maybe you could ask the detachment leadership over at Spec Ops to come up with their own version of the pre-approval program? It's definitely been helpful here.

I would test fit with the butt plate attached as well. How that and the kidney come together will end up determining where your back plate will end up.

Agreed. Try it on with the undersuit to get a better idea. Your pants especially will get in the way. Pull the cod/butt up high (but not too high if you know what I mean) for your test fitting. Based on the existing pictures, I would say you need to minimize the gaps in the back. There should be little to no gap between the butt/kidney and a "minimal" one between the kidney and backplate. Pulling the cod/butt up will help this, and you may be able to bring the back down a tad as well (hard to tell with the tape masking where the shoulder pieces of the backplate end). You may end up having to re-do your straps in those areas to get rid of those gaps. Looking forward to updated pics

Yep, I concur that you should be good for basic, and with a few changes you could easily make EIB with that suit. One thing I would do is bring the butt and kidney closer together, ideally you should not see any black there. Looking good trooper, hope to see you joining the ranks soon!

When trimming your thighs, be sure to take off half off how much you need from each side. Trim from the back, but if you plan to take off 2 cm, take off 1 from each side. That will keep your thighs from looking lopsided.

No need to rush, as you say. To clarify what @gmrhodes13 means, painters tape can help you keep your lines straight, and, when clamping, can keep the clamps/magnets from scratching up your armor. Good tip.

My thoughts exactly. If you used E6000, for example, you could just rip off the back coverstrip on the thighs, trim them down some, and reglue, no hassle. Again, it's worth stating that you should be able to be approved as is, we're mostly talking comfort/noise making here

Seconded.

Your sketch lines on the top of the ab look like a bit too much IMO, but everyone's body is different. I would maybe do half of that, test fit, and then decide. As for the butt, it will have a minimal return edge (my AP butt has more like a molded "bump" as a return edge, it might be 3 mm tops) The return edge will NOT be the same all the way around the armor. The ones two that will match up to each other are the butt and the kidney, and I suppose the back as well. Those should all match to give the illusion of uniform thickness across the back. The back and chest should also approximately match. Your trim lines on the butt look good to me.

Sugru works great for the frown mesh too. Thanks for the great walkthrough @justjoseph63

Basically, the idea is to minimize the gap between the two pieces. How it sits on your body will change how long those straps need to be. See the centurion approval thread here on the forums to get an idea of what that gap should ideally look like.

Or ask @Ripper_L to move this one for us

There's quite a bit of info on here about the difference between the TK suits. I won't go into ROTJ, as it is very different and your Anovos suit won't work for it. But the main differences between ANH and ESB are in the helmet and the hand guards. See this handy dandy diagram (not made by me) for the differences See here for the difference between the approval levels (basic, expert infantryman, and centurion) I definitely recommend you build toward centurion, as it is much easier the first time 'round, and will have you looking your best on troops! The different requirements are indicated by different font colors. Be sure to follow the CRL (costume reference library) to the letter as you build, as it is what you will be judged by for approval in the Legion. A great resource is the centurion approval thread here. You'll find a lot of great reference pictures of other people that have built your exact kit up to centurion standards.

The quality of their molds is good (but not as good as some much more expensive armorers), the armor looks great when built accurately. The belt on the other hand...*cringe* Anyway, the main quality complaint people have is the thickness of the plastic. It is VERY thin, especially when put next to a more substantial plastic like that in TM, AP, and many others. This means it is more prone to cracking or warping.

Oh my wife reveled in it, believe me. I'll try to post some pictures later.

Feel free to field specific questions here! I'm following your thread

Looking good! A couple suggestions I have for you... your butt plate seems to be floating a bit. Put some additional snaps in, attaching the but to the kidney, on the outside of the two pieces. I would space them even further to the outside than the below diagram. That should help the butt from floating away from the kidney. I notice you're using the screen-accurate brackets, so so feel free to do the same with those if you prefer. Your thighs seem a bit big for your legs, especially in relation the sniper plate (I imagine it will end up catching on the lower lip of the thigh as you walk). The way I trimmed mine was snug up top (maybe one finger clearance), tapered down to be a a little bigger below (maybe 2-3 fingers) to allow for movement. I can try to go more in depth if that doesn't make sense, let me know. You already mentioned you didn't have much of a spotter/photographer (which is fine haha), but make sure that glove is tucked for your official approval pics! Looking good trooper, there's honestly not much there that would hold up your basic approval, you'll have your TK number in no time!

Ya, that's actually one of the smallest gaps out there haha. You'll be perfectly fine. PS, assuming you're using the default theme for the forum, check out the guy on the right side of the forum page's background. His gap is bigger than yours

@Sprocket You're getting close! To be perfectly frank, pushing a JediRobe suit to level 3, as you mentioned before, will be tough. A few things I'm noticing on your build that will prevent your basic approval, some more nitpicky than others. This is all assuming you're going for ANH stunt, although you've never expressly stated as much. I'll go from top to bottom These should all be pretty simple fixes! I'm sure a local garrison member would be more than happy to look this all over in person and assist, as well. -When kitted up, make sure your hair (glorious, by the way) is all tucked into the neckseal and down into your undersuit. We shouldn't be able to see any of it -The JediRobe shoulder bells just suck. No way around it. But to optimize them you could probably minimize the gap in the front (at the cost of the gap in the back). --Your biceps are swiveled too far forward. There is a ridge on the bicep (facing backward in your pictures) that is supposed to line up with the ridge in center of the shoulder bell. This means that your forearms are also mislocated, as the cover strips are supposed to line up between the biceps and the forearms. You can see this in a screenshot a little later on. -The elastic you have connecting the back and chest plates should be removed, as the white area under it needs to be seen. To keep the chest and back together (and to keep them in place in relation to the ab and the kindey), simply snap the chest to the ab and the back to the kidney. Let me know if you're not sure where to put the snaps and I can post a diagram or snap a picture of mine -Your plastic belt corners are a little off. They should be cut at 90 degree angles, not rounded, as you can see in this handy dandy diagram courtesy of Billhag -Your dropboxes should line up directly with the edge of the plastic belt, so move them out a bit -The holster is attached incorrectly. It should not have loops. Instead, the straps are hidden behind the belt and riveted like this -Your thigh ammo belt is attached way too high. The rivet should be in the top corner of the ammo pack, as you can see in this screenshot. Also, it's hard to tell, but it looks like it might not have the rounded corner on the bottom (see the above diagram) -This is more my OCD talking, but the flare at the bottom of the JediRobe shins bugs me to no end. It might be a dangerous proposition, but I would try to reshape it to make it smoother. Keep up the good work, and don't get discouraged that I gave you a bucket list of items to change! We've all been there, it's part of the process. Let me know if you have any questions, or if any of the above doesn't make sense! Also, maybe a moderator (@Ripper_L maybe?) can move this to the build section, as I'm sure it would get more traffic there than it's getting here.