Tee-Bowls

March 25, 2016

I went back and measured the drop boxes and realized they were about 17 mm instead of 15. I also sanded them both down quite a bit but i may have gotten a bad pull or somthing because these boxes are just shaped weird and no amount of sanding/trimming has fixed them.

They look decent enough from the front but when looked at from the side they look off.

Here's one:

Here's the other:

One of them from the front:

I then turned my attention to the belt which I purchased from Rob/TKittell.

Well my armor belt already has the rivet covers so I'm trying to figure out how to attach it to the canvas belt.

Here's a back shot of the belt if it helps.

This is the belt and I've got an idea of where to set the middle of the belt so I've got that going.

I'm thinking of adding snaps but I'm not sure if that would work probably work.

March 23, 2016

So I went ahead and added the longer of the slotted pan screws and realigned the clips.

Here's a front/top view of everything lined up.

I wanted to get started on the drop boxes so first up was trimming the inner boxes. I hope I didn't cut too much off.

Here's how one of the inner drop boxes fits from the back.

The drop box from the top.

I'm not sure how to fix the drop box without ruining the shape of it. Is there a rule on the depth of the drop boxes?

It seems very oddly shaped when looked at from the side.

I then needed to paint the new screws. It was pretty easy and I used the Humbrol paint for the helmet just to save some paint.

The two drop boxes from the back.

Drop boxes from the top.

I'm going to try and get a lot more work done this week.

New Member Introductions Archive · March 11, 2016

Welcome to the FISD Matt!

Good to see someone else from Vegas on here! There's tons of helpful threads and members so don't hesitate to ask for help.

-Tyler

February 22, 2016

So I think i went a little screw crazy at Lowes last night. I purchased 3 different types of smaller pan slotted screws. It's all I can really focus on at the moment so might as well go 100% into getting the TD made lol. :laugh1:

I'll start with the smallest size of screw I purchased. I'm keeping the screws in the bag so I can take back the ones I don't need.

The medium screw head.

The largest screw head.

I'm going to be painting the screw heads black as well as drilling new holes for the smaller threads to fit and hopefully I'll line the clips up evenly .

February 19, 2016

So even with the accidental hole punch I decided to get back to sanding parts down and I have to say things look much better now that they have been sanded.

Here's a shot of the TD plate and end caps sanded.

Trying to figure out the best location for the plate and this is what I came up with.

After being content with the location of everything I decided it was time to drill some hole for the screws!

All the screws from the bottom.

The clips attached from the front.

Now for the bad news during my drilling one of the clips moved a tiny bit. It created a small gap between the bottom of the plate and the top of the clip.

The Gap.

No Gap.

Should I re-drill the holes and move the clips or is the gap small enough nobody is going to notice? Nothing is glued down yet so it can always be adjusted. I also contacted Scootch about replacing my arms and parts of the helmet, the Easy-Off oven spray was working great but it takes forever and their are still pieces I've haven't gotten too.

Thanks for checking this thread out. Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

February 8, 2016

Well I was in the middle of sanding the face-plate last night when my hand slipped and I ended up puncturing the area behind the mic tips on the left hand side looking at the helmet.

Here's a close up of the damage.

And it from behind.

A far away shot and some process on the vocoder.

A shot of the sanded portion against the old paint.

I might be able to fix it. I know it'll be covered up but I don't want to lose a mic tip.

I've been working on sanding my edges down and it seems to be working out. I'll post pictures of that soon.

January 21, 2016

I found some pan slotted head screws on amazon and go them in the mail today.

The screws are plastic instead of metal as well.

They look a lot better from the front than the old screws did.

Last but not least the side shot of the screws.

If these screws work better I'll glue the plate on and attach the clips right up against the end clips like so.

Hopefully finishing of the TD will give me the confidence to get some of the torso pieces finished.

January 18, 2016

Well it has been way too long an armor hiatus for me. The Easy-Off works when it wants too and it's quite a time consuming process. I still have to sand it off and trying to remove the paint without damaging anything. I've finished the ears and they are ready to be repainted.

I also ground down my new TD pipe to fit the smaller end caps better.

The Easy-Off sticks to the paint and if it works the paint becomes slightly gummy and easier to scrape off.

Here's an Example of it with a shoulder bell.

The darker sections on this shoulder bell is paint that still needs to be removed.

This is the other shoulder bell that is ready for paint.

Now these pieces came out decent from the beginning so no sanding is needed.

The shoulder straps that I'm going to sand down a bit to be more even.

The Butt piece.

The Chest.

The last painted piece the Back.

Now I did repaint the TD pipe completely gray to remove the bar-codes and give it a cleaner look.

Here is just the TD plate and end caps.

A test placement of the clips. I know they are suppose to have little to no gap between the clips and the end caps so I think this looks good. ignore the plate, it moved when I was attaching the clips and it isn't glued on yet.

An underside shot of the clips.

I couldn't really find anything about the screws to attach the clips so I found these at Lowes and figured they would be ok.

A top shot of how the screw fits into the clip.

A side shot of how the screw head sits in the clip.

I'm still unsure about the screws and the placement of the clips but if both are alright I'll go ahead and finish off the TD completely.

It feels good to get back to work after the holidays and things are progressing slowly but rushing is how I ended up with the paint issues.

As always thanks for reading and any helpful comments are appreciated!

New Member Introductions Archive · December 27, 2015

Lauren,<br><br>

Glad you made a profile! This is a great starting point for you!

November 21, 2015

Argon_Awesome<br><br>

Made the PSN ID back in middle school or else I'ld go by Tee-Bowls.

November 10, 2015

Well the time came to remove the old paint and thanks to some great ideas I decided to go with Easy-Off Oven Spray to remove the old paint.

I read on a model car forum that sealing the pieces up would help remove the paint.

So far the larger pieces I found these 2.5 gallon bags.

So the first pieces to be sprayed were my ears.

Here is a test of a smaller bag.

The first up was the Cap and Back.

Then the Face-Plate.

The Ears.

The Shoulder Bells.

The Biceps.

The Forearms.

I also went out and got a new pipe for the TD and I cut it tonight. At least this one is gray from the beginning.

Hopefully thing will start to work and I can get some pieces finished! :peace:

November 5, 2015

Thanks for catching the end caps!

I trimmed them down and at the same time evened them up to give it an overall cleaner look.

My only issue is I had sanded the pipe down for the original length of the end caps but now that is exposed.

Is this an issue? I would rather fix my existing pipe before having to get a new one.

November 1, 2015

Thanks guys, I'm going to be sanding off the old paint and my edges.

Adam, I did the Plasti-Dip first because I figured I could peel of the excess from the front and it wouldn't matter if the white paint spilled inside. I did multiple layers of painter's tape.

I've been sick the past few days so no major work was accomplished.

Although I did get the dry pieces of the Thermal Detonator put together.

Here are the end caps stuck onto the pipe.

The plate.

The awesome TD clips from EvilBoy. The non-bent clips.

Are the clips close enough to the end caps?

Here it is all put together. I haven't drilled the holes for the screws in case my clips are in the wrong spots.

So that's all there is for this update. Hope everybody had a good Halloween! Time to get over this cold and get back to work! :duim:

October 29, 2015

So even with changing of paints and sanding off the old before adding the new one I'm still getting cracking! Ugh... Its even worse now. I'm not sure what to do...

Can this be stopped? Or is my piece ruined?

October 28, 2015

So the plasti-dip came out great!

During a test reassembly I added the mic tips in.

I figure it was time to drill my holes for my EAS microphones.

A close up of the system. Minus the speakers or headphones. I haven't decided on which to use yet.

So to install the system I needed to drill some holes for the microphone to hide behind each ear.

Then to drill a tiny hole through the ears themselves so the microphone can pick sound up.

Now when the helmet is painted the rank stripe should cover up these holes.

After drilling, I took everything apart for the coat of white glossy paint.

I taped the faceplate up and the cap again.

Cut down the ab buttons.

Time to finally re-do the arms in the correct size with new cover strips.

I decided on a Krylon spray paint and it was a bad choice. Stay away!!! The nozzle sprayed paint all over my garage and caused major drips.

The next day I decided to start trimming in preparation of a new paint.

The kidney plate was roughly trimmed. I'm going to need to add some shims later to the abs and kidney.

The butt armor was easy enough to trim and I'll add the snaps later on.

Trimmed the chest plate.

Trimmed the rest of the ab buttons.

A pile of trimmed parts.

Trimmed and angled belt.

Started to trim the ab plate.

The next major step was to take care of the TD.

My trusty Dremel helped sand and bevel the PVC pipe.

Here's one side sanded down.

The end cap fitted on.

The other side of the TD.

Both end caps.

Tonight I got new paint (Rustoleum) and I hope it turns out better than the Krylon.

First up was the TD pipe.

Used Rustoleum again for the pipe but this time gray.

The painted TD pipe.

The belt was next.

The end caps.

The final part of the TD.

The shoulder straps.

The outer drop boxes. The insides need to be trimmed down to fit.

The Butt armor sprayed.

The back plate.

The Front.

Shoulder Bells.

The Biceps.

The Forearms.

The repainted Face-plate.

The repainted Cap.

The repainted ears.

The screws for the helmet.

And finally a shot of everything that was painted tonight.

I hope this paint comes out better than before. I'll try to get even more accomplished tomorrow!

New Member Introductions Archive · October 28, 2015

Welcome Jim!

It's always nice to see another trooper from Nevada on here! The forums are full of a lot of great information! You should probably make your mind up about the Stunt or Hero early on because of the different parts needed to accomplish one or the other. Good luck on whatever you choose! Maybe one day we'll troop together!

-Tyler

October 25, 2015

I plan on sanding the disc sections down soon.

I heat flattened the bottom of the ears to give the ears a cleaner look.

After taking everything apart the real fun began. Taping everything up so I could spray Plasti-Dip on the inside of the helmet. This way the inside of the helmet has a clean black finish.

Taping the eyes and the teeth were the first steps.

After taking of those sections it was time to add tape around the edge of the faceplate and cap.

It was then time to spray everything.

Here is the Plasti-Dip I used.

Letting it dry over night I started to trim the belt for later.

Hopefully the coat comes out good and I can start to finish off the helmet and eventually more pieces.

October 25, 2015

Well it seems like the "hump' or rather the large brow above the eyes is still quite large. I'm not sure if you plan on keeping it that way or not. I trimmed mine down drastically to help the trim fit lower.

The gap on the brow is up to you. It's a personal preference.

The "tubes" should be close enough together. The ears do cover the seam but there should be a screw to connect underneath so there should be some overlap.

Along the bottom trimming off the mold lines to the point of being hidden is pretty much what I went for. Depending on the length of your trim.

It's easier to cut the trim than to have not enough!

Hope this helps out a bit.

October 25, 2015

Hey Juan,

I'm currently building the CAP HIPS armor as well but for the ANH Stunt TK. What are you having difficulties with on the helmet? I may be able to assist in some way.

October 23, 2015

Thanks for the catch on the right ear! I adjusted it as well and trimming the ears even more. My main light was taken back to the office so i had to improvise. Ignore the bad lighting.

I also added the screws underneath the ears. I'm planning on heat forming the bottoms to fit more flush.

Here is the other side.

As well as the adding of the screw.

I decided to try out adding the bottom U trim. Is there a certain way it's suppose to fit on? They both look the same to me.

So this is a far away shot of the helmet.

Going to be adding the mic tips and hopefully moving on to painting!

October 21, 2015

Thanks guys!

I switched the ears around and luckily I hadn't ruined my existing ears by having them backwards.

I've been shaving them down as well.

The Left ear on the helmet.

Front view

Back view

The Right ear on the helmet.

Front view

Back view

Here a look of both ears from the front on. Are the ears looking ok so far? Is it better to have ears that are a little thicker or them being too thin?

October 21, 2015

Sure! Here are the profile shots. The left ear facing the helmet isn't really attached to anything right now as I'm still trying to sand them down a bit.

Hope I have them on the correct way. :duim:

October 19, 2015

More progress!

I was able to line up the face plate with the cap to drill the holes for the inside screw.

Here is a test fitting of the face plate and cap.

And here is a test fitting of the brow trim.

Started working on the ears.

I couldn't help myself at this point, I had to do a test fitting! :smiley-sw013:

Started sanding and trimming the right ear facing the front of the helmet or the helmets left ear.

It looks decent from far away. I'm just nervous about cutting off anymore.

A little bit closer to the front.

The ear from behind.

That all the updates for now.

If anybody has any ideas on how to fix the ears it would be greatly appreciated. I'm just nervous about messing them up. Thanks for reading!

October 17, 2015

I was able to get started on the eyes last night and I think they turned out great!

I didn't want to cut out too much of the eye at first because it's a whole lot easier taking away and sanding than it is trying to build it back up.

After making my lines and feeling comfortable with them, it was time to start cutting.

One eye completed!

The second eye was a little bit easier after I had a little confidence.

And the view from behind.

I hope I've cut enough off but not too much. If I need to cut more off let me know! I hope to get even more completed this weekend. Stay tuned!

October 14, 2015

So I had originally planned to start the helmet last, I felt I needed to get started before it was too late and rushed.

Setting up everything before hand to make sure I have all the correct pieces.

Matching up everything before trimming.

Luckily Scootch has made tutorials on making his helmets, so I'm not completely lost on what to start on.

Removing the huge brow/forehead from the face plate was a good place to start.

The next step was trimming the face plate.

Making lines to cut out the teeth was the start of a nerve racking process.

Then came cutting out the teeth.

The first two cut quite easily and gave me the confidence to finish them off.

Moving on to the other half was a little more difficult due to the way I was holing my blade.

Here are all the teeth cut from the front to give them the initial shape.

Afterwards I realized the teeth should also be trimmed a bit from behind.

Makes them look much nicer this way.

The finished product from the front.

The teeth from the inside of the face plate.

If I haven't trimmed enough please let me know but I think it looks pretty OK.

Tonight I plan on getting the eyes cut out and maybe more. :duim:

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