themaninthesuitcase

Guess I'll measure up one of the Anovos ones then and order some the same size. I'll probably use the supplied ones for the belt to keep the riveted look steel wouldn't have.

Just checked it and it's dry after overnight.

Congratulations on finishing. What size Chicago screws did you use to hold the plastic to the belt? I need to get cracking on the belt soon.

It is humbrol gloss white. That doesn't sound right. Should be try after 6 hours. The black I used on the TD screws was fine. Ill check mine in a bit, but I suspect you either had bad paint or applied it way too thick.

I won't have enough spare for a full set but if you get stuck let me know and I'm sure we can figure something out. An envelope to the NL is about £1.50 by the looks of things.

Cracked out the Humbrol a bit this evening. Started by painting the rivets for the side straps white. I left the crotch rivet as bare brass. I did all 6 but you don't need to see both sides. I will need to do another coat once this ones dry. I also did the 2 button plates: This time rather than a #4 standard brush I used a 3mm flat brush. This seemed to do a bit better of a job coverage wise and in getting a clean edge. I'll be using this brush for the edges of the gray on the bucket. Still worried about the black outlines on these but I'll cope somehow. The fix to the shoulder bell seems to have gone well. The external excess was sanded first with 180 to remove the bulk then 600 to smooth. I've not gone for a perfectly smooth result and some paste is still visible. The reason for this is I don't want to make the fix any weaker than I need to. I will polish the bell once I get some new polish and I don't think you'd see it even up close. I think the reason for the break was this was the thinnest second of the return edge. When I flexed the bell a bit this was the weakest area so it just went. The split thickness is about 6mm from face to edge. I propose to trim both bells to this dimension. This image shows the rough line that needs trimming. I'll do a better job of marking out once I'm ready to trim. I also glued in a snap for the thigh to belt elastics. No pictures as exciting as this sounds. One leg has slightly flattened at the rear when glued, I may need to warm and round this a bit but I'll give the armour some wear first to see if it's truly needed. And I'll finish off with a picture of the stripped face plate. There's 4 small spots left but I'll clean those up once I get some more thinners. I'm going to play hunt the thinners tomorrow as it's a bit hard to find in the shops, hopefully I'll be able to get some and save an online order. I'll also pop into Halfords and get some new polishing compound to get a bit of a shine on the bucket before I start back with the Humbrol.

Mine came from here: http://www.spaldingfasteners.co.uk/ I got a bag of 10 along with washers and metric (course) nuts. Wasn't very expensive, £3.06. The humbrol enable thinners (not acrylic) made short work of the transfers. It works on the frown but was harder work and used a fair bit. The vocoder was Isopropyl Alcohol to get most of it off then the thinners to clean up. Get the 125ml thinners as it evaporates fast and you need a fair bit. I think I've lost about 1/5 of the 28ml to evaporation but this is probably down to the small jar size.

Had a bit of a scare this evening. Spent more time with the IPA and cotton balls cleaning off the vocoder paint. As expected this made a bit of a mess. However when I went back over these areas with some clean IPA it wasn't shifting, and was all over the main face, crap. I was hoping it was going to buff out but my stock of polish has obviously gone bad so was only fit for the bin. Fortunately I had a tiny bit of thinners left (a lot seems to have gone for the angels share...) which wiped it straight off. So let this be a lesson to all of us: buy the big one. I did for the rest of the order so not sure why I didn't for the thinners. Now I have to try find more in hobbycraft at the weekend. No pictures as its not too different than the last and I'm sure most have seen a plain face plate before.

I might be wrong but it looks like you've glued the cover strips on the inside of the shins. These should be on the outside only as you open them to get in them.

Wish I'd done the hot water on the sniper. Might have ended up a bit straighter!

I did a test fit of the M3.5 screws I purchased last night and have now got the image. Testing the fit of the M3.5 screws by Christopher Pearson, on Flickr They look right to me and fit the pre-drilled holes nicely. The shafts are bigger than the supplied screws. I got mine here, they also do the matching brass nuts and washers, you want the metric course nuts (that confused me a bit and I had to google about a bit to work out if I wanted course or fine). Delivery was pretty fast but no idea if that's helpful to anyone out side the UK. http://www.spaldingfasteners.co.uk/metric-brass-countersunk-slotted-head-machine-screws-m3-m4-m6/

Delivery from Hornby! For reference Hornby will charge you £5 for delivery then not actually bother to dispatch for a week... After fixing the shoulder bell I promptly broke it again the following morning testing the fix. So I did it again. Bit heavier on the outside this time. This will need to be sanded but as it's the under side I'm hoping it won't be too visible. I also embedded a small strip of offcuts scrap into some paste on the back to help reinforce the break as I will possibly need to heat bend the bell out a bit. The other night I glued the plate onto the TD thus completing the first whole part on this build. Huzzah. It still needs the white plastics polishing though. The evening I glued up the TD I started dissasembling the bucket to clean up the paint. I spent some time filing out some of the eyes to get them closer to a reference image: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/themaninthesuitcase/TK%20Reference/DaveM3_zpsww1ihblr.jpg I probably could go farther but the reference image has a small return edge there and I was worried about messing up. I also tested the M3.5 screws for size and they look pretty close to the same bucket I referenced before but from the side. If you look you also get to see the ear gaps on the Anovos buckets is nice and accurate as is the brow trim not running all the way to the corner. Also of note is where the bottom ear screw is. Far higher than any builds I've seen which have it as on the Anovos kit, hidden under the S trim. Most of this evening was spent stripping the sloppy Anovos paint job from the bucket. The frown was removed using the Humbrol enamel thinners. Required some elbow grease but worked nicely. Bit tricky to get into the corners but some cotton wool on a tooth pick did the job. The thinners also made short work of the transfers used for the tear and tube striped. These rubbed of pretty fast so I'll used the same stuff for the traps once I but some more. Top tip: the 28ml bottle is not going to be enough! For the vocoder I had a harder time. The thinners was barely touching it, small dark marks on the cotton wool but I'd need a bucket full to get far. The white spirit I used to clean some glue from the inside padding just made it shiny. Only when I used some IPA (Isopropyl alcohol, not the ale...) and saw it went black when I wiped over did I find a chemical that would shift it! This stuff is going to make a huge mess. You can see I've only made a start but this will need a few goings over to first remove the paint, then again to clean up the mess where the IPA has flowed whilst cleaning off the paint leaving specs of paint I stopped for the evening as at this point the wife was high as hell as she wasn't provided with appropriate PPE. I should fire the site manager. Once the paint is all off I'll give the bucket a polish before re-assembling with some auto polish to give it a nice shine, the paint removal has dulled it even further than it was before. After that it gets painted and put back together. With any luck I'll be able to get some more thinners a bit faster than waiting for Hornby.

Yea but sounds like yours was more pronounced than mine is.

Probably 1cm out of line (so the ends are 1cm out of level if if that makes sense). I might just leave it and let the closures hold them in place.

Pro tip: leave ABS paste longer than overnight to go off. Will be having to redo the shoulder bell crack again.

One of my shins is twisted. Might try the bath to fix it. I have to do the shoulders so will have to get some boiling water going anyway.

There are DIN specifications that do specify the head sizes, washer thickness and so on. My M3.5 are DIN963. Which you can look at here: http://www.fullermetric.com/technical/information/din_specifications/specification_din963.aspx M3.5 head size should be 6.5mm if they are DIN compliant.

TK build update: all the images edition. I'll start with some images from the other day. As I said I found a crack under the S trim on the bucket. I used a pin vice to hand drill a small hole at the end of a crack, around 1.5mm, I didn't check the size just picked one. The point of this is to stop the crack running. They use this on drum cymbals when they crack to save them. If you look the crack is right at the end of a thick layer of superglue that was used to hold the trim. This created a stress point which then cracked. Not shown was the rough as badgers cut job of the bucket. I used a file and some 180 to smooth this off, again to try and reduce the risk of further cracks. I picked up 2 50ml bottles of acetone at a (support your) local pharmacy. I've chopped up some scrap and added about 30ml of the acetone in a baby food jar. Cleaned first obviously. This has sat for 2 days now and is pretty nicely brewed. Tomorrow I'll sand off as much of the super glue as I dare and then I'll apply some paste to the crack. I also took the clamps of the 2nd thigh. Again the big *rude word* clamp did the job and the strip bent again when the clamp was removed. I was testing the flex on a shoulder bell to see if I needed to trim more return and discovered the answer: yes, because it can't flex properly so cracked. Again I will need to fix this with some ABS paste. For this one I'll probably use a square or triangular file to add a V profile along the crack and then fill this with paste to give a strong bond with minimal need to sand back. Once that's done I'll reduce the return a small amount. I also added a 2nd coat of Humbrol #85 satin black to the M4 pan heads I am using on the TD. The result is pretty decent. I also picked up some organisation for all the screws and such needed for the build. This has my split rivets, M4 screws, nuts and washers and the M3.5 for the helmet. I also now have some bobbins for the sewing machine for the white and black threads as well as some more M4 washers to use with my split rivets. Yesterday I sat a sewing machine for a couple of hours and made lots and lots of elastics. I've not done all of them but most of them and made a few spares for some. I still need to finish the shoulder 2" white, make a crotch strap and probably re-do the elastic for the side with the solo snap. No images, because sewing was too hard for my fragile brain. Now on to todays work. I got a top tip to make a snap tool with a sawn off flat head screw driver, hence forth special tool #1. After a lot of practice, and several dead rivets and snaps I more or less got the technique down and braved the armour. I did all 7 rivets needed, the 6 on the ab/kidney and the front crotch. I am probably 100% happy with about 3 of them and 1 of them will have to do as I couldn't get it out. I got better as I went but I figured out a few things 2 of which are important. 1: be picky about the rivet, they aren't all cut the same make sure you pick one that's cut all the way down, some aren't cut that low and I think these are the ones I had issues with. 2: You need to "sway" the special tool #1 as you hammer to apply even pressure to both legs. I'll do a tutorial on this later if people want it. The result is a nice set of snaps: That means I can completely remove the elastics. And will still pass centurion once I paint them. I also started to build up the TD. I used 4 of the painted M4 screws so the head was against the aluminium bracket, a washer against the tube and then a nyloc nut. I chose nyloc as I don't want to have to pull the caps because of a loose screw. These are also stainless steel as that's all I could get the screws in rather than being extra fancy. To fit the end caps I got a pan and pre heated it with some hot water from the tap while I boiled a kettle. This was so the boiling water stayed hot rather than heated the pan. 1 at a time I removed the cover plastic and dropped the cap into the boiling water for 30s. I used the spoon to hold them in the water and also to remove them after the time was up. I did my best to drain the water then dropped them on the glass on top of my oven. This was chosen as it's heat resistant and smooth so not to add texture in the next step. Finally I pressed the tube into the cap. Now these were nice and warm the tube went in easily where before just starting to fit them was a nightmare. The chamfer added earlier made lining this up and starting nice and easy. Once fitted the plastic was set by putting it under a cold tap. The caps look nice, have butted up against the clips nicely and only a small ripple on one side where the plastic stretched.

Glad I made some abs paste. Cracked a shoulder bell return flexing it earlier.

B&Q, Homebase and a few others. But like I say it's more it's a controlled substance and you have to have a good reason to have it. I asked in the shop I got some in and they said they couldn't get the bigger ones as its used for bomb making. I have a link to a place that sells stuff like fibre glass supplies who sell it but if I can get it on the high street I save on expensive shipping.

I can get it in 0.5l cans but it means an order to a specialist supplier who will probably be required to keep a record of the sale. Loads of stuff you can get in the US is a controlled substance here.

You Americans have it so easy. Went to buy some acetone and you can't get it in bottles larger than 50ml and I was asked what I wanted it for. Fortuately, despite some confused looks, I managed to get 2 bottles. I am probably now on a government list though, as the reason you can't buy it in large amounts (easily) is it's used in bomb making.

I did all of my cover strips one side at a time. This meant I could ensure everyone was lined up nicely before the glue set.

I got my helmet pads in the post today so started a basic disassembly of the bucket. The hard hat liner came out easily and basic testing of the pads looks like the will work well. I also removed the S trim to allow me to repaint the vocoder as the standard paint job was less than great. Under the s trim I found 1 small crack. I've drilled a small hole at the end of it to stress relieve and stop it running. I will make some abs paste and fill from the back to reinforce it. They also where a bit heavy handed with the CA glue when building these. I've got some CA remover but it melts the ABS. I've added a layer of CA to my test sheet and will see if I can use a cotton bud to at least thin down the glue a bit in the worst areas. I will redo the frown as well as the paint wasn't great but unless there's any pressing need will leave the tube stripes and traps for later. I will eventually do them again but for now they seem okay.

Not long ago I started a to do list using Trello. For those interested it's publicly viewable here: https://trello.com/b/6Iy1Plmi/anovos The items with blue are needed for EIB and the red for Centurion. No colour means JFDI. I think I'm starting to get close to finishing the armour. Then all I need to do is finish the E-11....