CoolHandLAZ

Thank you everyone!

Hi all! After being approved a couple of weeks back, I'm finally getting around to checking in. I've had a blast putting together my armor over the last year and I can't wait to get trooping! Many thanks to all of you here on the forums, especially @ukswrath for his amazing Anovos tutorial. This has always been my dream costume and I'm beyond grateful for everyone that has assisted along the way. Long live the Empire!

TK-71128 requesting 501st access. Thanks a bunch! https://www.501st.com/members/displaymember.php?userID=33772&costumeID=124

Thank you! Very much appreciated!

I am also happy to say that with the adjustments suggested by the folks above and my GML, I have been approved! *TK 71128* Thank you all for your help and support! I couldn't have done it without you! SoCal Garrison and LA squad, happy to join you! I look forward to applying for EIB and Centurion in the future as well!

Totally! Makes sense. Yeah I brought everything back up and adjusted the strapping to get it as high as I could. But one of the culprits, I found, was that I had a pretty big gap in between my back and the backplate itself. Gave it a hot water bath and was able to straighten it out, thus moving it up.

Thanks for the feedback! The reason I took the strapping off the back is to show how big the gap would be if I brought up the back piece. The strapping might bring it up a little but there still would be a sizable gap.

I think the biggest issue unfortunately is that I have a long torso. Here are some pics with measurements.

Hi! Sorry for the very very very very late response. Thanks for the kind words! So yeah I think I'm as high as I can go with the cod and butt pieces. If I were to bring the back piece to where I conceivably would want it, I would have a huge gap in between the back and the kidney pieces. Here is a picture I took as an example: I'm really not sure what to do...

Hi again! So it was requested that I fix a few things before getting basic approval. Most of them were minor and taken care of, but the one I've been struggling with the most is how to raise my back piece. I'm 5'11 with a long torso. I'm worried if I bring the back up then there will be spaces between the back piece and the kidney. The strapping is already made of nylon so there isn't much give. I can't really raise the posterior any more. I have already given the back piece a hot water bath to straighten out the shoulder strap parts. Any suggestions on how I could do this? Thanks!

Looks amazing man!

Many thanks! As soon as I get basic approval and tweak the armor, I'm definitely going for level 2 and 3! Thank you! Your armor guide was my number one resource. Thanks for putting that together! You bet! Thanks for the feedback! Will get that stuff together for level 2 and 3.

So I'm back, and while I haven't posted as much as I'd like, I've still been chugging along. And I am happy to say that I have submitted my build for basic approval! I still have a few mods I would like to make for EIB and Centurion (like replacing the belt with my Kittle belt) but I am so thrilled with how it came out! Thanks so much to everyone who has helped out, especially @ukswrath for creating the ultimate build Bible for Anovos TK armor. I couldn't have done it without the help and support of folks in this detachment. I look forward to joining your ranks hopefully soon, and down the line in EIB and Centurion! Until then...

That's what I was thinking too. Thanks!!

Hi all! It's been a minute but I'm back to working on my armor! So I've forged ahead and started with the strapping. I decided to go with the snaps method. I used line 24 snaps and nylon webbing to create the snapping system. It was a bit of a learning curve for setting the snaps but I ended up getting it working. I did some sizing to make sure everything lined up correctly and then glued the snaps in. The strapping on the back is still gluing. I'll post a picture of it completed when it's dry. So then I started working on the thighs. Once those were glued together, I started measuring out the thigh ammo belt for the right thigh. I got it lined up fine but I had a question about fastening the rivets to the thigh piece. How does one hammer a rivet in to a completed thigh piece? I thought maybe putting a piece of wood inside the thigh piece to give it something to hit into. Thoughts? Thanks!!

Copy that will do! That is a great reference. Thanks! I'm very happy with it. I'm glad I went with your fans and hovi tip mics. They are awesome. Thanks again! Okay great I'll definitely clean all that up! Good to know!

Long post coming I felt inspired to work on my helmet so I shifted to that for a little bit. I'm thrilled with how it's come out so far! Anovos had the hard hat liner which I didn't like too much so I took that out. Actually I gutted the whole helmet. I was going to paint the interior black but felt nervous about taking the helmet apart and putting it back together. So I left it as is. I then moved onto some of the centurion mods since I felt that would be easier to do at the beginning. I first replaced the bottom ear screws with screws from @justjoseph63 and painted them white. After that I moved onto the frown. Researching on the forums, I found a few different ways to clean up the frown. Since rubbing alcohol was at a premium because of the pandemic, I couldn't go exactly that route but I did find alcohol prep pads. These worked wonderfully because I didn't have to worry about excess rubbing alcohol getting everywhere and I was able to really dig in there and clean those teeth up. I still have to do the tops correct? (I realized this after the fact) but I think I got the bottoms to where they need to be. This one was taken after I put the lenses in. After that was done, I went ahead and extended the frown on both sides using enamel paint. I still need to do a bit of cleanup on that but I'll do that when I get around to cleaning the whole helmet. I replaced the Anovos supplied lens with one from Trooperbay. I decided to cut out the eyes to give me more space in the helmet. I'm glad I did because once I filled up the helmet, it got crowded. I traced along the holes from the outside with paper and used that as a pattern to cut out the lenses. I left the protective film on to avoid scratches. Using sugru I acquired from @justjoseph63 and following his tutorial, I formed the attaching points around the eye holes. I had to trim down my lenses a bit because I aired on the side of safety from the start and made them big. Once I got the correct size, I pressed the lenses onto the sugru, and after letting them bond for a day, they were very securely attached. They are not coming off. Had to do a bit of clean up on the outside of the lenses from the sugru seeping through but it was fairly easy to remove. I also removed the mesh frown cause it was falling off and I needed to put more glue on it. I saw in another tutorial on here, someone used craft foam to outline the frown. I liked how it looked clean and how it prevented anything from catching on the mesh. I just measured the foam around the mesh and cut it out. Then I used E600 to attach both to the helmet. I used magnets to keep everything down while drying. For padding, I bought some military tactical pads on amazon. It took me a little bit to get the sizing right. I used painters tape to move things around before I got it exactly how I wanted it. Then, with industrial strength velcro, I attached everything. (I took this picture before doing the frown). After the pads were in and secure, I decided to move on to the fans. I bought @ukswrath's fan kit and cooling bracket and am very happy with those. They work wonderfully! I ended up going with an external battery pack for convenience. I got an anker one on amazon. The battery pack got velcro'd to the inside right of my helmet. I then installed the fans and the bracket. The fans attached to the bracket and I ran the cables underneath. I was able to configure them so that they would be able to plug into the battery pack. This was a little tough because the helmet is asymmetrical but I got it to work. For the speaker system, I went with @ukswrath's internal speaker system/Hovi tips. Man was this a great choice. Everything is self contained. I love it! I started off by removing the Anovos Hovi tips. This was very easy since they were just screwed in. I had to drill out the holes a bit in order to fit the cabling through. I ran the cables through the holes and screwed the new Hovi tips in. This was also very easy. I velcro'd the amplifier onto the left side of the helmet, exactly opposite of the battery for the fans. I then ran the cabling under the cooling bracket so that it could plug into the amp. The last thing I did was plug in the mic and position it so that it was right by my mouth when I put the helmet on. I taped it down so it wouldn't move. And voila! It fits great and sounds awesome! It also feels balanced because I have the electronics evened out on both sides. I don't have an Icomm but I may in the future. We'll see. But yeah that's where I'm at! Just a few cleaning things I still need to do. Let me know if there are any suggestions to improve. Thanks!

A little late posting this update, but I did get that sniper knee plate glued on Then, glued the hooks onto the back of each shin, drilled holes so that the hooks could connect, and did the final fittings (all per Ukswrath's thread). Moving right along!

Those T-Tracks look great!

@gmrhodes13 and @Firedog cool I'll go ahead and get rid of it. Cheers!

Thanks! So my other question is concerning the cod area. Should this edge be removed? I didn't see this on the return edge thread. Thanks thanks.

Been making some good progress so time to post an update I finally got that sniper knee fiasco under control and got it to stick. It's amazing how pliable ABS is. One of the the things that solved my problems was that the inner leg side of the sniper knee was too long so I trimmed that a bit and that made it work. A bunch of glue, tape, and clamps later and bam: While that was drying, I skipped around to the abs and kidney section for a bit. I drilled holes for the Anovos supplied split rivets and made sure they fit nicely. Next up on that front will be painting the rivets white. And next up for the shins/calves will be installing the hook system to hold them together.

Happy to help! Good luck with the build! That's some serious firepower

Hi! So these are the exact magnets I bought: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MYQV446/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Those magnets in your post look like they would work fine but I prefer more of a disc magnet so there's less of a chance of them coming off if you bump them. I'd recommend getting a bunch of them. I use a lot of them when securing pieces. Clamps as well. And the blue tape is painter's tape. Definitely use painter's tape as opposed to other types of tape. It comes off nice when you're trying to size and glue things down. Hope this helps!

Right on!