Sentry71

Don't update in a few days, and suddenly you are page 2. This weekend was mostly sanding of edges. Lots of dust, but nothing photo worthy. I was able to complete the bicep and forearm cover strip rework, getting the strips down to smaller sizes and reattaching them to the parts. Today, I placed inner strips on the shin pieces and letting that dry overnight. Tomorrow will be the other half of each, and then in a few days, I will see if the shins need to be shortened at all. With the next armor party in my area almost two weeks away, I figure I can take a more leisurely pace and get pieces ready to take with me, so that I can have someone else's eyes on getting pieces fitted to me. Thus, shins will have the fronts done, but not the back, and I suspect the same for the thighs (though the simple rule on thighs seems to be: loose enough to slide easily is what you are shooting for). Sizing the ab/kidney/etc will probably wait until then as well. That still leaves snap plates and all kinds of elastic goodies to prep as it gets closer to Mar 5. And then again, there is that "other" costume to finish.

It looks like the eyes are ok. On my helmet (which was precut by someone that builds these suits often), the plastic left for the top of the eye is about 8-10mm, and the bottoms are about 5-6mm. I apologize in advance for the huge pics.

Personally, I cut mine along the edge you indicated.

I ended up doing the latter - removed and repositioned strips to allow more space, and it helped a lot.

There's an app for that??

Forearm looks good!<br><br> Personally, I used the extra cutoff as the inner strip, so that it was nice and thin, as well as letting me see if the size was right before applying outer strips. I figured if I had to destroy an inner strip, that is less noticeable/more easily fixed than an outer strip.

Awesome work, Aaron! The nice weather is supposed to start tomorrow, so I have been holding off on sanding edges until I could do it outside. Should be a white dust weekend here.

And delivered by Winnie the Pooh, too! Awesome!

I was concerned about the button plates as well. E6000 to the rescue! (I don't think I have had a single item glued on that I have not had to remove at least once.) At the point of the most recent photo, my shin cover strips were 25mm (because I had to modify the forearms to be 20mm instead of 15mm, and wanted to scale up with the other cover strips). I talked with ukswrath, and he advised to reduce the size of the forearm strips to 18mm, and just leave a little extra near the return lines to make up the space. Therefore, other over strips could be closer to "normal" as well. So, since that pic was taken, I have reduced all the cover strips closer to expected sizes. For example, the shin cover strips are now reduced to 20mm on the front, and I should be able to do 25mm on the back without having to add anything extra.

I think the letter forms are called Aurabesh. I would check the star wars wiki, but mobile is not conducive to multitasking for me.

That is a good question. I've been using lexan scissors for most cuts, and the straight lines with a metal ruler for score and snap have been relatively clean. I would think that those cuts (if not too deep) can just be sanded out. Deep cuts might require ABS paste, but hopefully none of your runaway blade marks are that deep.

Sounds like the closest would be the leak seal, but since you found it, you are in business. Spray or liquid? Both will work, but obviously application is different.

The armor looks like it belongs in the kitchen with all that white around it. You have the right attitude - taking your time - and that will pay off in Centurion status at the end. You also seem to have your supplies planned out... not much else to add at this point, other than possibly recommending boots ordered sooner than later, as they tend to take a while to show up. Looking forward to following this thread!

Looks good so far... keep it up!

Yeah, the cover strip length is a bit over as a caution until I finalize the bottom of the calf. I think I will need to cut off a slight amount from the shin bottom, since the shin itself is a bit long for my leg. Once that gets sized out, I'll shorten the cover strip to match. Thanks for the catch on the biceps - easy enough to fix with E6000.

Does this make my bottom (leg) look big? Seriously though, I am wondering if the cover strip for my shin (which is sized up in proportion to the bicep/forearms cover strips) looks too big. Since the strip is only taped in place, I can remove and reduce it if needed... I can't decide if it needs to be, though. Any thoughts are most welcome.

I second the paint. Just take your time with it, get good brushes, and remember - you can always go back and paint over it again if needed. <br><br> Hope your little one - and Airborne's - get well really soon!

I saw a short bit of it. He was using a mouse sander to take care of edge sanding. I had considered getting one, but read about how the most common one (Black &amp; Decker, I believe) uses plastic gears, and won't last if used with any pressure.<br> So, it will be sandpaper and a wood block for me.

I ended up with 20mm cover strips for the forearms, and replaced the outer strips on the biceps with matching sizes. They really don't look that different than the 15mm strips, so I think I'm ok. I sent a PM to ukswrath, and he recommended to "increase the size of the other cover strips to make the remainder of the armor look uniform". So, I am shooting for 25mm on the legs and 30mm on the rear calf. I can probably bring those down a mm or two if they look too big. So far, this is what I have: - both forearms completed and drying - one bicep completed and drying - other bicep is half done - initial cuts on both shins on the front, to allow for cover strips I also found out about local armor parties - but of course, as luck would have it, I found out the day after it happened. I know when the next one is (Mar 5), so I figure I will get pieces together as best I can (front of shins and thighs) and leave the actual fitting for that day, when I can have a few experts look at what I am doing. Until then, there is still work to be done.

You can put similar items in a photo (both forearm pieces, both bicep pieces) if you want to have less photos. Overall, the cuts look really good so far.

I have looked at a few Centurion applications where they did cut that extra bit off. I'll see if I can find the links to them.

Love your work on the ab, very clean and crisp edges. Great job getting the rough cuts done. Keep it up!

Armor party! Woo!! Nothing like having experienced eyes to help with the details. Can't wait to see what you learn!

Button plates: too big?

I think I have come up against my first fitting problem. I was able to get the biceps trimmed and leave a space for the 15mm cover strip on both sides. They seem to fit ok (might be slightly long for my arms, but I can address that later). ​However, when working on the forearms, I cut the top/outside return to accomodate a 15mm cover strip to match the biceps. The trouble is that if I try to tape the inside forearm at 15mm as well, I have a lot of trouble getting my hand through, as well as trouble bending at the elbow without the forearm being really tight. If I tape it at 25mm, it is much more comfortable. I suspect I could increase the cover strip areas to 20mm to split the difference, and allow for more comfort. However, that raises the question of whether I should expand the cover strip area of the biceps to 20mm to match. (I have inner strips with E6000, but no outer cover strips, so modding from 15 to 20mm won't be a big issue.) I'm mostly concerned that if the sizes are inconsistent or "too big", that it affects getting to Centurion. Looking for any opinions or links to previous threads addressing this. I'll keep looking as well. Suggestions?