shadan

Great tip!

Nice work mate. I do notice that your belt is sitting quite low in that last pic, perhaps it’s slipped off the poppers?

Awesome build so far. I haven’t ever really looked closely at a TM kit before but after reading your thread, damn it’s nice! Next time perhaps?

Well yes you can of course

I would be very hesitant to try and Dremel the screws off in situ my friend. They will heat up so much before you actually cut through them that they will most likely cause melting somewhere you don’t want melting! A while back I cut some screws for my F-11D down using my Dremel. I didn’t have a vice so I held them in a clamp. I now have a perfect screw shape melted into it

I started to do that on my RS lid but found it too nerve wracking. What I found easier was to drill holes then open them up evenly with small files. I’m sure it can be done with a Dremel but as a first timer it wasn’t for me. I did attempt to keep the depth even over all teeth and I think I achieved that. Best of luck to you!

I have no idea how many times I’ve put this in my cart now... it just seems like something that will never happen.

Nice work so far! I installed the brackets on my chest and ab pieces to see how it all fit together. I need to countersink the screw holes like you. Off to Bunnings for a bit as soon as I’m home from this quick holiday! (Bunnings is the Aussie equivalent of the US Lowes, I think - our Lowes just sells clothes!) I’m looking forward to getting all the internal strapping done. It appears I need to take material off, and here I was thinking I’d need to shim! Awesome seeing builds doing what I’m currently doing.

Thanks for the kind words, gents. Its funny, after beginning this build I’ve becoming so impressed with how white and shiny this material is that there is a part of me doesn’t want to dirty it up. There’s no way I’d be able to go sandy!

Hey mate. Great thread so far. You’re ahead of me but I thought I might be able to provide some (admittedly noob) advice. With your thighs, they look quite long to my eye. They seem to sit quite high up in your groin and possibly even cover your knees a bit? Almost as if they are resting on the top of your shins. It is hard to tell from the photos but I wonder if you may benefit from removing some material from the tops of your thigh pieces but maintain the current shape. Do you have a garter system to hold them in place? The teeth issue confuses me, I’m not sure if I’ve painted mine correctly either. Sorry! Now this one is hard because I can’t quite tell in your photos, but it seems to me that your cod is either sitting a bit low or your kidney plate too high. These two pieces should marry together nicely, with the six split rivets aligning. Depending on the level of accuracy you are going for they don’t need to be touching but, I believe, should align horizontally. There are no end of pics on this throughout these forums. If I wasn’t on my iPad I would try to link a pic for you. But try this thread: So much useful information here. I’ve been using this a lot myself. There are some handy diagrams for attaching holders there too! Hope some of that helps.

Yeah I definitely need a second canvas belt as you can’t have visible holes where the holster was. That’s ok, I have two already having planned for that

Excellent, my brain told me something good! Thanks for that. On the topic of belts: I’ve been thinking about using snaps to attach the ammo pack/belt to the canvas belt, with the snaps hidden as per usual by the button caps. That way I can swap the belts out easily when I go HWT. Are there any requirements of L2/3 that I’ve missed that would limit this? I can’t see any but I haven’t found anyone else doing this. Yes the belt might sit a fraction higher against my armour but not in a noticeable way.

This morning I’ve worked on the belt and TD. Using the awesome Billgrams as my guide I set to work. The old score and snap works really well on PVC. I wasn’t sure if it would to begin with but it’s actually quite easy to work with - on long straight lines anyhow. And in no time at all... I won’t go further until I’m ready to do the canvas belt. I’ve seen people lay them flat to attach it but I feel I should allow for the curvature of the suit so there’s no bunching up or anything. That’s another day. RS sends the TD with the clips already attached. I know I’ll have to replace the screws at some point. One thing I will do soon is put more of a bend in the clips so they sit flush with the pipe. Again I used the Billgram. The end caps were quite easy to trim and fit. I made sure to remove one of the screws to let the pressure out - didn’t want anything to break! The control box trimmed up quite easily as well. I’ll need to strap it down well to glue it properly. Anything amiss before I do?

Never go lowbrow You are probably right about the black lines. I stressed out so much going closer and closer with the gray. They do look nice and bold now I suppose.

My brushes arrived - time to finished the vocoder... nope. eBay strikes again, these brushes are terrible, the kids can have them for crafts. Sigh. Oh well, perfect weather for some trimming outside. I got setup out the back of the garage, mask and eye protection on, Dremel plugged in, some tunes playing... and the rain starts. So I shuffled back under cover and continued anyway. I trimmed up the chest and ab pieces leaving an even amount of return edge over both of them, but a little more on the lower-chest and upper-ab. I didn’t want to take too much off here as I’ll be using the accurate bracket kit from Mr. No Stripes. There’s probably a bit more tidying to do once I see how it all fits but I think I’m close to what I want. One thing that that I was concerned about is the stresses on the plastic so I’m adding extra strength like many others before me have done. I measured and cut small strips of spare material and glued into place with E-6000. Not too concerned with overflow in here as I’d rather a good, strong bond - but it’s easy to clean up afterwards. Just the centre pieces in place for today. Some magnets and clamps later and it’s time to let it cure. I haven’t got a timetable or plan for this build so it’s sure to jump around all over the place rather than follow some linear path - just fair warning.

Hey everyone. I thought it was high time I started a build thread over here as well as my Garrison. I couldn’t pass on the 40th anniversary deal that RS had going earlier in the year. After finance officer approval my BBB was on its way and I received it just in time to deploy overseas for six months. That’s a long time to do some research and make a bunch of online orders for parts and other bits and pieces during limited time off. I decided to go the HWT route via ANH Stunt with the aim of making the two interchangeable with belts, pauldron, cleanup etc. I’ve posted here rather than HWT, but will probably start a backpack build over there soon to seperate the two. ANH Stunt first then HWT. Anyway, I’m back now and have been making some progress between much needed family time. I pretty much came home to this. There are a few bits of merch in there in case anyone is trying to identify everything. Bucket partly assembled and painted here. Stepping back a bit, I should start with the bucket. I marked out the cut lines for the eyes and used a Dremel to carefully remove the material. The eyes was a combination of drill, Dremel and files. Being an RS kit there are many bumps and wrinkles but I love it. Did I mention this is a PVC kit yet? Once I was happy and had trimmed the parts a little I fitted the two together. You’ll probably notice that I’ve made them a little loose and there’s a gap between the faceplate and brow. That’s the issue with blinding using the hole marks in an RS kit, folks. I fixed this up later on after some good advice from the guys in the SCG (that’s the Southern Cross Garrison, not the other one I see around here a bit :P). Next up I began painting. The frown first followed by the tube stripes. I used some stencils from Trooperbay as I didn’t trust myself. A little bit of cleanup to do... ...followed by the traps and tears. Black first, then carefully laying down the gray. I really tried to take my time to get it right. You don’t realise how much your hands shake until you try to paint perfectly straight lines, and fail. More templates for the lines... again I have some clean up do to but I’ll do that later. Now its time to do the dreaded ears. I really didn’t want to do these as I was sure I’d mess them up. I went nice and slowly, trimming a little at a time, just the high points until I had a nice fit. Now I’m not entirely happy just yet but I’m leaving them for now. I think overall they should be thinner. I then fitted the lens. This was also from Trooperbay as I wasn’t at all happy with the film-like stuff that RS provides. (I know, I know, I haven’t finished the vocoder - waiting for a better brush to arrive because it’s nearly Christmas and going anywhere is crazy right now lol. Also, yes the brow is high, it works for me right now. I may alter it later but I know that will take some work at this point) And lastly, just last night in fact, I painted the black for the ears and fitted the mic tips - I forgot to take pics of that process sorry. And that’s where I’m up to. I’ll try to post things as they happen from now on, rather than playing catch-up. Having fun so far and that’s the main thing in my book.

Looking good Mate. You got this for sure. First for the Garrison!

Looks great Andrew. I’m building an RS kit at the moment, I should probably start a thread here on FISD as well. Just today I redid the side rivets as I had a similar brow gap as you had earlier in this thread. It’s looking much better now. The next thing I need to tackle is the ears, they scare me I feel as if that’s the one place I can really go wrong and not be able to recover! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

This is next level stuff. It’s been amazing watching your progress. I’m building my first E-11 soon but doing a basic trooping one. But after that... I’m going to have to do something like yours for display. Not that I think I’d get close!

It’s looking good mate. I’ll be hitting you up for tips soon enough. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I didn't want to say it like that Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I believe the head of the screw is visible on the outside with the bracket, washer and nut on the inside. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I've got an RS props kit on the way to Sydney right now. I may have to hit you up for some pointers some time Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Haha I'm the other way around, I've used this name everywhere except at our garrison - don't know why I did that! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Good luck mate. Looking fantastic!