hupspring

This is a really cool mannequin. I may redo mine using this technique. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks! I was excited to get Centurion and now my wife likes to make fun of me. After lugging around the big Husky bin, I kind of wish I got the smaller one since I'm not putting the helmet in it. It would be nice to be able to put the bin in my car's trunk instead of taking up the entire back seat. I have to remove my son's car seat to fit it in the back, which means I wouldn't be able to drop him off if I had to before heading to troop without going back home to get the bin. But I do like having the extra room in the bin so that I don't have to break down all of the armor parts and stack them. Since my forearms and biceps are stuck together with a piece of elastic glued to each, I can't nest those parts.

I finally went on my first troop yesterday and it was great! I learned a few things from the other troopers, like not to just stand there with your arms at your sides for pictures. I look like awkward trooper in a lot of pictures as I didn't pose at all. Even just putting your hands on your belt makes a world of difference! I'm the trooper just standing there with my arms down at my sides. Overall my armor held up well with no armor bites or issues other than the top of the hard hat liner digging into my head after about 45 minutes. So I need to add a little bit of padding in that area. I also had some issues with the electronics. I didn't turn up the volume on the Aker enough so my voice wasn't coming out of the speaker, but the icomm would still click after I talked. The EAS was also getting some feedback and amplifying the sound of the fans so that I can't hear anything outside the helmet. I think my fans are still touching the bucket which was causing that, so I need to re-evaluate the positioning (I have them sitting on a small piece of hard foam which is velcroed into the bucket). I really want to get one of Echo's brackets and think that will help fix it. The small camera pouch that I added to the chest in a previous update already broke. I shouldn't be surprised since it was only a dollar, but the zipper somehow broke in a way that it doesn't close the pouch when you zip it. My wife said she will just make me a small pouch. Although I may have her size it bigger to fit my phone. I also added a couple of stickers and a label to my Husky bin. I need to get some garrison and squad stickers to add. And for the interior my wife got some 1" green foam and sewed some covers for them out of old bed sheets. I just used the leftover 1" industrial strength velcro from my armor build to stick the foam to the inside of the bin. The foam is much nicer than using towels to prevent the armor from rubbing on the sides of the bin. I still suck at packing my armor in the bin so I can't fit the helmet in with everything else. I had to get a helmet bag from Trooperbay to carry it separately. I think if I took off the chest and back from the rest of the armor it would fit, but I like not having to dismantle everything when packing the armor.

Cool idea. I like using a hard hat liner instead of just padding, but I'm currently using velcro to hold mine in place so it's a bit wobbly. Did you use E6000 to glue the connection points in?

For the back piece you should use the hot water bath method to reshape the curves so they fit better. Check out ukswrath's thread for a good tutorial on how to do that. Make sure you trim the return edge on the side where he mentions it, or else you'll risk getting cracks (which happened to me). I tried to keep the plastic covering on my armor until I was finished but it just got too annoying, especially when trying to pull off painter's tape. After a few weeks I just pulled it all off and was much happier during my build

I haven't been able make it to any troops yet (my first will be in a couple of weeks) but I have suited up a few times, mostly for pictures I ran into a few problems, like the holster screws scratching up the side of the kidney. I fixed this by putting a piece of soft velcro over the screws in the holster. I also had to trim some areas like the return edge from the shoulder bridge parts of the back piece as they were digging into my shoulders after 20 minutes or so of wearing the armor. Before May 4th, my wife wanted to get a family picture of all of us as Stormtroopers. When I was suiting up, one of the pop rivets in my belt broke, so the plastic belt was swiging free from the cloth belt. For the pictures I just used painter's tape to hold it in place as best I could. It worked okay, but you can kind of tell something is wrong in that area. A few days later I was able to fix it using a chicago screw instead of pop rivets. I might change out the other side as well since I'm afraid the other pop rivet might break during a troop and I won't be able to fix it easily at that point. The last thing I did recently was to make shin elastics to keep my shins down. I basically followed this thread. I may have put the velcro a little too high inside the shin, or I need to better adjust my thigh garter, because after we got our photos I noticed a huge gap between my thighs and shins. I probably need to lower my thighs a little and raise the shins a little as well. I'm also still working on my wife's armor when I can. We ordered her new thighs since hers are twisting so much and I had to add shims to the back, but they don't look good. When those arrive we'll have to weather them as well as the helmet my son is wearing to replace the FX bucket.

After wearing my armor a few times for about 30 or so minutes each, I made a few adjustments. I got the electronics finalized and put in place. Initially I had the Memorex wireless mic, but the one I had was defective so I had to send it back and got the Steren wireless mic in return. It worked okay, but unless it was practically in my mouth, it would cut out a lot, especially if I had the slightest pause between words when talking. I then got the Wireless Trooping Systems blutooth mic and it is awesome. The mic and receiver are both very small, so don't take up much room in the armor. And they both have internal rechargeable batteries so I don't need to carry around extra batteries. Since the blueooth receiver is so much smaller than the Memorex one, there was a lot of extra velcro in the ab section where I mounted the electronics. In the helmet I got the mic velcroed in so that I don't need to move it around when putting the helmet on or off. I also have ukswrath's hearing assist setup. I tried using speakers but for some reason, the audio is very low and can't be heard unless the speaker is right on your ear, so I put in earbuds instead. I also have eqdizzle's fans - right now they are velcroed to pieces of foam, which are in turn velcroed to the bucket on either side of the frown. Without the foam, the noise was really loud and the hearing assist was just making the noise even louder. With the foam I can actually hear what's going on outside the helmet. You can see I kept the Anovos hard hat liner - I actually like the liner instead of just padding all around my head. I did try using padding but it just didn't feel right. The interior of my bucket isn't pretty, but it gets the job done. Since I put the electronics in my ab, I had a lot of space in the chest. I wanted some kind of space to carry my wallet and keys, so I went to the dollar store and got a cheap camera pouch then vecroed it to the chest space. I probably should have put it (or a bigger pouch) in the back plate instead, but I already put it on the chest so for now that's good enough. After a few troops I'll see if I need more storage.

After thinking about it, I'm actually considering stashing an extra USB battery at the front of the helmet which would help even it out. I didn't even think about getting a larger bag for the back plate - maybe I should do that too. Although I'm starting to get too much stuff stuck to the inside of my armor. I already have an Aker/icomm strapped to the ab plate since I had a lot of extra room in there. Sometimes I think I should just go HWT or sandy so I can have a backpack to store stuff.

I have the same problem with the helmet tilting back due to the weight of the battery at the back. Have you come up with any ideas for how to counter it? I was going to add something of similar weight to the front under the frown, but I don't know if I want to add something that doesn't need to be there. Concerning somewhere to store valuables, I picked up a cheap camera pouch at the dollar store and velcroed it to the inside of my chest. It's big enough to hold my wallet but still small enough so it's not taking up too much room. My phone is too tall to fit (iphone 6s) but a smaller phone would fit.

Don't let the snaps get you down - you got some good experience at making snaps! To this day I still make mistakes with snaps. I was making a longer strap today for my chest/ab and accidentally used the outer part of the female snap but the inner part of the male snap so I had to remake that strap again. I actually have a pile of snap mistakes in a box in the garage. There are a lot of mistakes in that box. Oh and concerning pulling apart pieces glued with E6000 - you can pull them apart multiple times. Just clean off the residue once the pieces are apart.

Mine doesn't have that interesting of a backstory - it's based on the title of an obscure song from one of my favorite bands (James). I've had it since the 90s.

Ah I've been debating trimming the top backs of my thighs as well since sometimes they will hit the butt plate. I still haven't mastered the positioning of the thighs on the thigh garter yet, so the right position might solve it for me. Trimming yours would probably help if you could then pull them higher. You could probably even get away with not having the point in the back - I've seen several RS Props kits that have no point in the back, just a curve around the entire rear.

Before you cut the back of the knees, try just removing the return edge from the back. I was having a little bit of discomfort from the back of the knees and removed the return edges on the back of the thighs only. Now I'm able to climb stairs with no pain. And if removing the return edge isn't enough, then you can trim the back of the knee.

How do you organize everything inside? Do you use the tray that comes with the bin with all of your armor inside? I'm still trying to find the best way to store everything in mine.

Thank you!

Thank you, and I appreciate you sending those newer hand guards! You rock!

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you Tony! I'm so excited to be among the Centurions! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Name = Richard Boyda 501st TK ID = 17695 FISD forum name = hupspring Garrison = Southern California Garrison 501st Legion Member Link = http://www.501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=20975 EIB Application Link = http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/36502-tk-17695-requesting-anh-stunt-eib-status-anovos555/ Armor Maker = ANOVOS Helmet Maker = ANOVOS E-11 Blaster = Hyperfirm Height = 6'0" Weight = 150 pounds Boots = TKBoots Canvas belt = TKittell Hand Plates = justjoseph Electronics = iComm, Aker speaker, Steren/VoiceBooster wireless mic, ukswrath's SHA system Neck Seal = ANOVOS Holster = ANOVOS EIB updates: Tightened shoulder bell straps, trimmed off more return edge from shoulder bells, trimmed more from eyes on helmet, added heavier Hovi screen mesh Front Back Left Right Abdomen Details Ab/Kidney Attachment Cod and Butt Plate Attachment Interior Strapping Helmet Blaster Neck Seal Thermal Detonator Belt Sniper Knee Thigh Ammo Pack Shoulder Bridges Hand Guards Bucket Off Action Shot Edit: justjoseph sent me some new hand guards when he noticed mine were turning a pink color, I just haven't swapped them out yet.

The scope rail seems to be pretty sturdy at the bend even with those little stress cracks. Luckily I'm using this blaster as a display piece, so it shouldn't break due to manhandling it. I set a goal to have this blaster completed by the end of May. That should give me plenty of time, but I think a deadline will help force me to finish rather than set it aside again. It's also been kind of fun getting back at it.

I got a little more work done on the E11 this week. I wanted to get a lot more details, but I think the time I have is limiting me and I want to get the blaster done before I fall into another lull. I was able to finish the power cylinders but forgot to take a picture of the finished result (still unpainted). The last picture I have is before adding the anything to the rear. After looking at that picture I think I made the strip in front too big. It should probably be about half the size. I don't think I'm going to take it off and cut it as there are other items I'd rather get to and finish. The little "wings" on the sides wouldn't stay put (I think my CA glue is getting old) so I put notches where the wings would go. The wings then just slid into the notches and are snug enough to not fall out, but I did add some glue anyways to be safe. I then started adding pins to the smaller items like the bayonet lug, charging handle, etc. I used a small rod that came with the cheap counter set I got. I also added a screw to the inside of the magazine. Since this picture, I also drilled out the spot where the grub screw will go and used some carving tools to clean up the crevices. Then I decided to shape the scope rail from T-Jay's kit. I used a cutting wheel on the rotary tool to cut the rail, and it took a while. I'm not sure what you're supposed to use, but it worked well enough. I also wasn't sure how to bend the rail, but eventually I stuck it in a portable workbench's vice and went at it. It was a bit scary as it sounded like wood cracking when I started. When finished, there was a good bend but one side showed stress cracks. Hopefully it won't be a problem. I also made the small bracket that will hold the counter using the same bending process and coming up with the same result. I still need to drill the holes for the scope and counter and I think the counter is the last item to work on before I start painting everything. Opening up that hole on the counter has been time consuming and every time I look at it I tell myself I'll finish that later. Hopefully later doesn't turn out to be 6 months down the road!

After taking photos for EIB I realized the left thigh was being pushed in from the holster, and since my legs are skinny and the thighs are pretty loose, a gap was showing on the inner side. I put some padding on the outer half which stopped the thigh from being pushed over. A suggestion on my EIB app was to bring in the shoulder bells by trimming the return edge on the bells as well as tightening the straps. I did both - I didn't realize how loose the straps were on the bells. I pulled off one side on each and reglued them tighter, bringing in the sides slightly. I also decided to add bicep to shoulder bell straps as this was on my to do list but I never got around to it. I'm using this to experiment with double snaps on elastic since I think I'm going to do something like this on the chest to ab strap. Currently my single chest to ab strap will pop apart if I try to bend over or look down to see in front of me, so adding either a double snap or maybe two straps instead of one will prevent that.

Thanks! There are so many build threads it's easy to miss. I just got EIB approval this morning too! So happy. Now I need to make a few adjustments and I will apply for Centurion.

Yep, I also used the washers and nuts that were on the screws from the helmet. The screws were slightly smaller than the holes in the belt clips, but with the washers and nuts they hold fine. Make sure to put the screws in before putting on the end caps, otherwise you'll have to take the end caps off to get the washers and nuts on the inside. I only made that mistake twice Here is a picture with them installed: