Cricket

Hey There! A BBB is enroute to me today from across the pond, arriving tomorrow!!! I'm so excited that I want to share. Ahhhhhh, so flippin' excited. I'm currently working on finishing up my WTF Hero build for a garrison friend, and that build will continue (documented on that thread) until she's got full approval. She's aiming for Centurion, so fingers crossed that I can get her there! In the meantime, I get to do my third TK build. The RS Hero TK! Yay! (This build wouldn't be happening at all without @TheSwede and his input, so... Thank you, Daniel!) In the meantime, since I don't have any BBB pics yet, I will share a few choice pics from last weekend's troop. Wearing my RS Stunt TK, of course. First, the ANH scene we recreated... Next, an official BadA$$ pic... Then when Vader left, we goofed off... See y'all soon!

Back in the 80's I used a hair spray called Stiff Stuff to make my hair super big. It held my hair up even in the rain and humidity of Hawaii. I remember that if the bottle leaked around the neck, the product would dry like resin, making it impossible to remove the cap. It would take at least 4-5 washings to get it out of my hair. So I'm guessing that if you can still find a can of Stiff Stuff, it would work beautifully to protect that weathering!

How do things look when you have the armor on? My notches and butt plate don't line up when it's just laying around. But when I put it on, everything lines up pretty well. Here are some pics from my EIB/Centurion applications, and you can see how the butt plate doesn't line up with the kidney. As I understand it, if the kidney doesn't have a notch when you received it, then you don't need to create one. If it's been there the whole time, you need to keep it there. Another thing is the CRL use of the word "ideally". Things should line up as good as you can make them.

Huge congrats!!! You look amazing! Now to get going on a FOTK Battle Buddy build for the little one.

It's the case of the Incredible Shrinking TK! This kit was sized to fit my 5'4" frame, but now I'm going to make it fit someone even smaller. She is five- yes, five inches- shorter than I am. My small garrison buddy came over yesterday for a few hours to get some serious sizing for the (what used to be my) TK. As we begin on this part of the build, here's a "weird but true" story for ya... A few months ago I bought a pair of black leather Chelsea boots on eBay for display on my mannequin. I didn't care that they happened to be a tiny size 5- they were only $10 shipped. I just needed something for display purposes. A few months later- when my garrison friend told me that she wanted to buy my TK- I found out that she had been having a really, really hard time finding approvable white TK boots in her size. Her size? Size 5! I had already airbrushed the boots with white leather paint, so they looked awesome, and are 100% approvable. When she came over yesterday, she tried them on, and it was a total Cinderella moment- they fit! The ab/kidney that I did not cut down was much too long on her. I ended up removing the butt plate and putting it back onto the kidney/ab that I had previously shortened. It fits her nicely! Hurdle one cleared. Next we test fit the chest and back plates with the rest of the armor. The photos are of the kidney/ab that was not shortened. I didn't get much time to stop and take progress pics as we worked. Hm. Again, ignore the longer kidney and cod (not that they are really visible anyhow) because they were swapped out. I thought the chest was riding too low on the ab, so I ended up raising the chest by trimming the neck (making a deeper scoop), and then following up by lowering the shoulder bridges further down the chest. I had to trim some of the ends of the chest under where the shoulder bridges are attached to allow some space between the chest and the back plate. The back plate is clearly not fitting properly on her in these pics. It's eye-opening to see how much larger the back looks on her than on me. That's me in the pic on the left with the same back plate! First thing was to bring in the sides of the back plate by dipping the lower corners into a hot water bath. We achieved a nice curve on both sides and eliminated that back flare. Next was to address the way that the back was overlapping the kidney. Swapping things out for the shorter kidney helped a little, but it still had too much overlap. I didn't want to trim any more from the bottom of that back plate. Instead, I trimmed the back plate only from the top, making the back plate neck scoop deeper and trimming at the shoulder connection areas. I trimmed about an inch from each side, as well about the same amount on the neck scoop. TLDR: By making your trims at the shoulder connection points and necklines of the chest and back plates, you can effectively bring both pieces up. This brings the entire kit into better proportion to fit a shorter trooper. I promise I will take more pics at our next fitting (shrink session)!

Looks great, Jeff! Good luck on EIB. Should be an easy pass!

haha... great minds! An alternative to making the kidney smaller is to make yourself bigger in there- and I don't mean by gaining weight! Add padding to the inside top part of the kidney to push it outwards to meet the back plate. I have similar issues with my kits. For me, my back plate wants to go under the kidney, so I added a wedge of foam in the bottom of the back plate to keep things in line.

Thanks for posting the side shots. Very helpful! Here is a suggestion of how you could trim additional bits off the back and chest where the plates meet. Shortening the areas - especially the left and right shoulder areas on the back plate - should allow you to bring the back plate up and off the kidney. I was told there should be an inch or two of gap between where the back and chest meet at the shoulders. (pic from my RS build) This is just a suggestion, though. Go with what's fitting you best right now. Any gaps will be covered by the shoulder bridges. At any rate, bringing the back plate up in this way could also allow you to bring your chest plate down in the front. This would also help the bottom of the chest from popping out quite so much. I think it might also make your girls a little more comfy in there by adding a little more space in the chest (this can also be accomplished by lengthening the white elastic at the shoulders). Like others mentioned, you can hot water bath those shoulder bridges so they have more of a curve. This will shorten them up as well. I added a piece of metal strip to the shoulder bridges. Not only does this add extra strength to the bridges, but it allows for a really nice bend exactly where you want it to go. From my WTF build... And from my RS build... And some screen reference for ya: I hope you don't think I'm being too nitpicky about things. Trimming down a TK is challenging, and you're making amazing progress so far!

Looking good there, Lindsey! You look great! Some things that I noticed that you may want to look more closely at: Your Han snap appears to be installed backwards. The working part of the snap should be on the inside of the ab, not the outside. The shoulder bridge looks like it could be placed further down on the chest. This would eliminate the need to remove the smaller bars off the bridges. I think you can go 5 or 6 bars on the chest plate. Also, you can completely remove the large tab on the back end of the shoulder bridges. That should help keep the ends further away from the OII box. I'm also noticing (as in the photo above) the back and kidney are overlapping. Tightening up the strapping there should help remove that overlap. If that doesn't work, you may also consider trimming the back at the neck (and the back at the shoulders) to bring it into better proportion with your frame. It's difficult to see how much you may or may not want to remove at where the shoulders of the back and chest plates meet. Can you post a pic of both sides while in kit with your arms down? If you're going for higher level awards, you will need to bring your drop boxes out so they meet the ends of the plastic part of the belt. As they are now, they are too far away from the ends. You would want the edge of the box to be aligned where the top arrow is. Again, you're doing a great job! Keep it up!

Well, having kids out of school and recovering from hernia surgery has sidelined my build a bit over the past month. I've made some slow but steady progress, though! The torso is now fully strapped together, and the limbs are fully assembled. I'm thrilled with how the torso fits now. The next part was where I was supposed to size the arms and legs to fit relative to the torso while wearing it all. However, this is where my build will deviate. Another vertically challenged 501st member in my garrison really, really wants to buy this suit. While I am 5'4", she is only 4'11". She wants to be an OT TK, but doesn't have the time for the build. After much deliberation about things, I've decided to not only sell my suit to her, but also assist her in person with getting everything to fit her frame nicely. I don't want to do all of the final sizing to fit me, just to have to cut everything down again to fit her. I will do my best to take photos along the way of the final sizing process so I can complete this build thread properly. I see this as a total win-win for us. My garrison mate gets a Centurion-level, vertically-challenged-tailored TK (I will be encouraging her to submit for EIB and Centurion!), and I will be free to work on my upcoming RS TK. Yep. You read that correctly. I'll be starting the RS Hero (Luke) build soon. Who said that TK building isn't addictive?

Ah! Did not know that. The belts with the kits I've built (RS, WTF) are all fairly rigid and need some hot water bath shaping to get it to bend nicely at the ends. Now I'm very curious as to what could have caused that blowout! Did the belt get hooked onto something as you passed it? From the looks of the belt (scorch marks around the hole), this rivet has been previously drilled out, yes? If so, then the hole may have been inadvertantly enlarged due to the heat, and would end up being a weak point on the belt. Either way, Ukswrath is spot on about the e6000. That should hold the belt quite well!

Wondering if you've curved the belt via hot water bath or similar process? If not, a curve in the plastic should help reduce the strain on the canvas belt.

Maybe your stirrups are keeping the shins held too snug to the boots? Just a thought, but maybe give the shins a bit more breathing room by attaching the shins to the stirrups a bit further away from the boots.

Congrats! Soooo.... What's the next project?

I use a 2" wide nylon web belt for my garter system. I modified it for easy on/off/adjustments by adding some Flat Dual Adjustable Side Release Buckles to the ends. The belt is wide enough and stiff that it doesn't slide down much and stays put. It is very comfortable as well!

Wow! Looks amazing, Daniel! Really great work. Congrats!

Here's a shot of the back of my RS shins from my EIB application. They're a little shorter than I'd prefer, but they don't look all that bad.

Here's what my RS shins looked like before reshaping them in a hot water bath. And after shaping them in the hot water bath so the back tops and vertical seams meet up nicely. I ended up overtrimming my shins a bit- a total mistake- because I sized them before actually trying them on with the torso and thighs on. Don't be like me! Make sure your torso is properly fitted and strapped together before getting your legs trimmed to size. Wear your torso and thighs when sizing your shins for length. It's easy to misjudge shin sizing if you trim based on wearing them over the boots alone. Just a suggestion, of course.

Looking good! I attached the belt with velcro on my first build, but I really didn't like how it ended up looking. Even with low-profile Velcro, it didn't come in close enough for my liking to the ab plate. Velcro just seemed to make the belt stand out more than it should. I ended up ripping it all off and going with ab snaps insted. That said, I have a tiny rectangle of Velcro attached to the ab in the center (with corresponding piece stuck to the canvas belt). It helps to support the belt and keeps it from shifting. I also attached some pieces of Velcro at the belt line on the kidney to keep the belt from shifting around in the back (one piece on each side near the 22mm kidney notch). Oh, and about e6000 on the belt... I've managed to get some on my belt and have never been successful with removing it. It's really stuck on there. I just consider it battle damage for the most part. White canvas belts attract dirt... might as well get used to it!

I wear thick wool hiking socks in my boots. They keep my feet really dry, and the extra padding helps my feet fill out the boots. Along with that, thick socks are super comfy. FYI, my boots are about one size larger than my normal shoes to allow me to put lifts in them.

Yay! I'm so glad you figured it all out. I had similar issues with my RS thigh parts, too. I kept the outsides long, but had to cut a lot from the insides/back to fit the shape of my body. I had to recreate curves all along the top back and inside areas. It took a lot of trying on/marking/trimming where the armor was hitting my legs and causing it to shift around.

Congrats on your BBB day! RS makes amazing armor, and I'm sure you will be quite happy with it. Looking forward to watching the build!

I agree with Luc... Cut along the red line, especially for comfort! Besides, it'll be covered by the belt. That snap press looks sweet! Of course, I had to dash over to Google for pricing.. Eek. I don't have any budget for that. At any rate, I kind of like bashing the snaps together now with a hammer. Quite satisfying!

I like wearing my rubber gloves trooping. I use black Glam Gloves because they are small enough for my tiny hands. You can easily remove the stitching to take off the decorative cuff, and voila... Centurion TK gloves for smaller troopers. I wear silk liners under the rubber gloves, and they are awesome! I've never ended a troop with smelly or swampy hands- even in high heat/high humidity troops.

I would cut it. Take a look at what I did for my RS TK. https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/41502-crickets-wtf-hero-build-even-more-tk-for-the-vertically-challenged/?do=findComment&comment=566543