NorthernGator

I am making one of these! Thanks for posting!

Thanks Tony!

Hi Tony and all! I may be sweating details a bit too much, but the painting of the ab buttons has been a constant source of disappointment. I have re-done the painting several times. I know the paint isn't meant to be perfect, but I am trying for decent circles, but the sides of the buttons are not very well defined in this armor. So, the paint runs down the sloping sides. I posted a trick I happened upon using a toothpick to paint and I have decent circles, but I wanted an opinion on whether the paint job is good enough. Here are the smaller buttons: And the larger control panel. Will this do? I don't want to get into the" 1/3 inferior" part not being painted earlier in this thread. Am I good or do I get more thinner and go at it again? Thanks for the input. Just waiting for double cap rivets and my undersuit from Anovos and I will be done. Looking for a Canadian blaster but won't need one yet for basic approval.

Definitely doing this.

I'm 5'9" also and didn't trim anything until it was all put together. In the end, I just needed to take the return edge off the bottom of the thighs and I can walk up and down stairs.

Hi all! If you are like me, you have often wondered how people get such nice, round circles when painting the ab buttons. I tried free hand, it was a disaster. I tried circle templates, but often got bleeding under the template. Then, quite my accident, I was dabbing off the paint using the toothpicks I use to stir the paint and.... Look at those nice circles! So, I stirred the paint, and let a few drops come off, then before the next drop comes off.. And then keep waiting for the drop to come off the toothpick... If you want the circle bigger, just stir the paint drop with the toothpick, it slowly gets bigger. And you have nice circles that still have that hand painted look. Try it if you have trouble with painting circles. Good luck!

No problem wearing the belt with the armor. The edges don't pop the Velcro is pretty strong and from lookng at pics no more edge pop than with rivets.

Hi all! We know the Anovos belt should be replaced. Too droopy. But, while some have been very successful in prying off the rivet covers to get the belt taken apart, I was really scared of doing this and doing some serious damage. So, after a consult with my Creative Crafting Advisor (my wife), we came up with the following plan. I ordered a Kittle. A big difference in how it looks just lying of the floor. Then I cut the canvas away from the ABS belt. Leaving me with.... Here is my velcro I made a detailed diagram of the old belt with all measurements I thought I might need. I also had pictures if needed. I marked the ends and middle of the ABS belt on the front side of the Kittle. Then put velcro over and under the original rivet. After gluing the hard part of the velcro on the ABS, I glued the soft part on the front side of the belt. Note that the velcro starts half an inch from the end to account for the angled edge. Using my map and old belt, I made the hole in the belt for the snap that attaches the belt to the armor. I made sure the snap was placed under the gap between the ridges so the snap would not get in the way of making the ABS sit as flush as possible on the canvas belt. Put in the snaps (small error on first one so I made 2 holes) Then took out the Chicago screws holding the holster. Using ukswrath Anovos build as the Build Bible, put the holster in the correct place. Put the ammo boxes in place. I did not take the ammo boxes apart do the rivet thing. These also seem really stuck together for me and I didn't want to risk damage prying them apart. I know for Centurion, it will be recommended to attach these the more screen accurate way, but it is something that isn't seen so hopefully won't get in the way for any future Centurion approvals and if/when replacement ammo boxes are available, maybe I try it knowing if there is damage, I can start again. Stick the ABS on the velcro and.... Much better. Since I have done this, some have even found a way to rivet the ABS on with gluing some scrap ABS onto the indentations on the back of the belt. The velcro I used is really strong so the ABS doesn't move. If it does, we have a plan B. I would really recommend all Anovos troopers to make the belt replacement. It really makes a huge difference in the look. Good luck.

I am scared to death to pry the covers off. I have seen a few other build threads and it didn't go well. The middle one in particular doesn't leave lots of room to pry it off. I am currently on this part of my build and I have a Kittle belt. I am going to mess around with cutting the canvas away from the ABS and then afix the ABS to the front of the Kittle belt with industrial strength velco and/ or E6000 and see what happens. I will still attach the belt with snaps to the ab. I am taking pictures of the process and will post the results in a separate thread with a link here maybe if that is appropriate. This will not be a screen accurate way of putting the belt together so not for everyone, but in the spirit of "it doesn't show and won't affect higher levels of approval as long as it looks good" , I am willing to see how it winds up.

Just when I thought this thread would be winding down. Can't wait for this to start!

I was thinking exactly the same thing

Hi all<br><br> I am preparing my build supplies for my Anavos kit due this Tuesday. One of the items I was having trouble finding was rare earth metals. Found a good source for people to check out at ------------ There are brick and mortar locations that may be easy for some to get to. Burlington Ontario is not far from me so I dropped by and picked up 30 magnets at about $1 each.

Where can one obtain a sheet of ABS plastic?

I ordered June 28 and have been notified of shipping to Ontario Canada. They are way ahead of schedule. I was expecting mid March.

Thanks for the detail you give about things like the difficulties trimming. Lots of builds say " Then I trimmed everything" and it is all miraculously finished. There are lots of small challenges I am sure that will help us first time builders once we get started. <br><br> Looks great so far, keep going!